Somewhere in the country, a numbers wonk is crunching statistics. This is a specialized field of data collection and analyzing.

Plus, you have to be really good at math. Statistics become the basis of every new story or report. If you want to know what American's are thinking, you take a poll. If you want to know what they are eating, you add up the numbers. If you want to know what they are throwing away, you weigh the waste.

Consider these fun factoids about what we are eating:

Each year, the average American consumes:

• 110 pounds of red meat
• 73.6 pounds of poultry
• 32.7 pounds of eggs
• 31.4 pounds of cheese
• 273.2 pounds of fruit
• 415.4 pounds of veggies
• 85.5 pounds of fats and oils

Clearly, that is a lot of eating.

On the garbage front, things get even more interesting. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average US citizen creates around 4.4 pounds of waste each day. This is over a pound and half from what we were making back in the 60s. Add it up and that means everyone makes 1,600 pounds of garbage a year. That would mean a family of four would create over 3 tons of garbage. Stack up the trucks needed to take away all that garbage and they would reach the moon. Luckily, we don't hold onto that waste (unless you've got hoarding issues.) For the most part our weekly municipal garbage pickups can handle the trash. What happens to all of that garbage?

Around 220 million tons of waste or 55% will be dropped off at one of the 3,500 landfills spread across the country. The good news is that 45% is being diverted away from those landfills. Right now, there are around 9,000 active curbside recycling programs scattered across the country. Thanks to those efforts, around 82 million tons of waste are recycled every year. That's like taking 33 million cars off the road.

A big partner in this recycling campaign is Junk King. Our eco-friendly philosophy is the core principle of our business model. When a homeowner, apartment manager or business hires Junk King, they are getting an automatic recycling partner. Collectively speaking, Junk King has been able to divert up to 60% of everything we collect away from those same landfills. That means we're doing better than the national average but we can go even further. If you're getting rid of junk and care about the environment, then Junk King is the only way to go. Staying "green" and getting a clutter free home. That's a win/win for sure!