A new report from the United States Environmental Protection Agency suggests that the way Americans produce, produce, deliver and dispose of good and services- what the agency refers to as "materials and lang management" - accounts for 42 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.
The study took stock of the emissions generated by land use, food and product production across the entire life cycle-- from resource extraction (think mining, agriculture and forestry) to manufacturing, packaging, transportation and ultimately disposal.
The report breaks from conventional analyses of greenhouse gas emissions, which typically focus on sectors such as transportation or electricity generation, and according to Joshua Stolaroff, a former science and technology policy fellow with E.P.A.'s Office of Solid Waste and Energy Response and the report's lead technical author, it suggests that emissions savings from waste reduction, recycling and improved product design can be significant.
View this entire article from the New York Times.
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