It gave me a 24,798.

Anyone who eats fruits or vegetables during wintertime gets them from another country (Mexico) or continent (Brazil in South America). Try to go without either for several months; impossible.

As for the amount generated because I live in a single family detached home, that's crap. More often than not, I got to the curb with a single bag of garbage compared to the neighbors having one or two 35 - 50 gallon trash cans. Not a Hefty Tall Kitchen bag, mind you, but a regular plastic bag you get from the grocery store. We are NOT average shoppers having to deal with the "normal" amount of packaging to dispose of. By not buying it first, I don't have to reduce, reuse, recycle AT ALL. From what we do buy, we recycle religiously.

Example: when I lived in Chicagoland my town recycled chipboard - think cereal boxes - and cardboard, while here in Houston I can't find anybody within a 30 mile radius of my house that will accept these items for recycling. Heck, my town of 50,000 doesn't even recycle glass bottles, one of the most recycleable materials on the planet. So to get a "deduction" by recycling I have to add 60+ miles to my annually driven amount for every round trip from my house to a place that accepts these materials for recycling. Trust me, it ain't a wash.

Hey Yendor - is Naperville's recycling center on the west side of town on Ogden still open? I thought I read that it was going through a funding crisis. They used to take ALL SEVEN types of plastic: ketchup and mustard bottles, prescription containers, the plastic containers that 35mm film comes in, everything. When I mention this fact to Texans, they look at me like I'm handing them a glass of Ebola Virus Cocktail saying, "Drink Up!"