2 million tons
of waste taken in annually at the landfill

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800,000 annual tons
of waste from single-family residents

6,000 tons of waste
left at the landfill each day on average

7 pounds of waste
thrown away daily by the average person in Texas (The national average is 5.4 pounds. Texans don’t necessarily toss that much more than other Americans; the national average takes only household waste into account, whereas the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality factors in other forms of waste.)

25,000
Number of homes that can be heated daily by the landfill’s methane emission

30
Percentage of time by which the landfill’s life expectancy should increase because of bioreactor technology

20
Number of landfills in the nation using bioreactor technology (Dallas was the first landfill in Texas to try it)

308
Number of methane wells reaching down into the Dallas landfill

120
Feet each well extends into the landfill waste (the waste is at least 130 feet deep any place a well exists)

$100,000
Average net amount the city makes each month from the sale of methane

250,000
Gallons of liquid that can be pumped into a cell each day to jump-start the microbes in bioreactor technology

30,000
Tons of recyclables the city collected from single-family and community recycling bins in 2008

$45
Price per ton Dallas is paid for its recyclables (down from $60 a ton in 2007 and $90 in January 2008)

$2.2 million
Total dollars, in gross, the city earned from selling recyclables in 2008

$5.5 million
Amount Dallas sanitation services spent to pick up recyclables in 2008

$20.98
Current monthly fee assessed by Dallas sanitation services to Dallas residents ($22.71 with sales tax)

$1.50
Portion of the monthly assessment spent on recycling pick-up

$2
Amount recycling would cost residents each month if not for the offsetting costs of recyclable materials sold

35
Pounds of trash a single-family residence recycles each month when recyclables are picked up once every two weeks

61
Pounds of trash a single-family residence recycles each month when recyclables are picked up once every week

30
Days per year of landfill space “saved” by recyclable materials