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Across the country, many communities, businesses, and individuals have found creative ways to reduce and better manage Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) - more commonly known as trash or garbage - through a coordinated mix of practices that includes source reduction, recycling (including composting), and disposal. The most environmentally sound management of MSW is achieved when these approaches are implemented according to EPA's preferred order: source reduction first, recycling and composting second, and disposal in landfills or waste combustors last. This Web site contains a wealth of information on MSW, including the following:
- Basic Information provides an overview of MSW management and describes key facts about the US MSW stream.
- Frequent Questions contains answers to questions often asked about recycling and solid waste management programs.
- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle includes information on MSW source reduction, recycling, and composting and provides information on household hazardous waste.
- MSW Commodities overviews information on recycling activities associated with a variety of materials recovered for recycling in the United States.
- MSW Disposal covers MSW combustion and landfilling.
- MSW Programs provides links to the Web sites of major EPA MSW programs including Jobs Through Recycling, WasteWise, and Pay-As-You-Throw.
- MSW State Data provides links to state, tribal, and community-based information supplied by those sources and by EPA programs.
- MSW Topics includes information on over 40 subjects related to MSW management, such as buy recycled, lifecycle analysis, pollution prevention, and used oil.
- MSW Publications