Talkin Trash

By: Ryan Trosky

Essential Questions
The amount of trash that I think my family generates a
day is 6 pounds which seems about an average amount.
My family does not recycle but we do not try and waste
the things we use.
Recycling is not our only solution though since people in
general could use their trash and items to their fullest by
using them for more than one purpose. Less trash could
build up in dumps since all the trash would be getting
put to use.
Best-fit models
The models that were chosen for the two graphs that were
plotted both seemed as if they were quartic since quartic seemed
to pass through the points the best and fit the residuals quite
well.
(Year, waste)
y=0.000152x^4-1.19319x^3+3523.64x^2-4.62474x+2.27619
(Year, Population)
y=0.0000012x^4-0.096202x^3+286.309x^2-378690x+1.8782

Predictions and Research
Predictions for Population: Predictions for
Waste:
1995 - 256 Million 1995 -
214 Million tons/yr
2000 - 274 Million 2000 -
234 Million tons/yr

Actual Population Actual
Waste
1995 - 266 Millions 1995 -
217 Million tons/yr
2000 - 282 Millions 2000 -
243 Million tons/yr

The predictions compared to the literal data is a little off but they arent to far
off from each other making that calculations accurate by not that accurate.

Pounds Per Person
The best-fit model that seems to fit the best is the cubic
model because it passes through most of the points
and the residual seems like it is the closest to the zero
line.

y=0.000136x^3-0.801967x^2+1581.55x-1.03966
Predictions and Actual
Predictions for Ibs/Person/Day Actual data:
1995 - 4.96 Pounds 1995
- 4.52 Pounds
2000 - 5.1 Pounds
2000 - 4.74 Pounds

The data that was calculated and predicted were a little bit
over then what the data was actually. But the data
altogether is close in the end.

Revised Table
Year Waste Population Pounds per
person
1960 88 179 2.68
1965 103 190 2.96
1970 122 203 3.25
1975 128 214 3.25
1980 152 227 3.66
1985 164 238 3.83
1990 196 249 4.57
1995 217 266 4.52
2000 243 282 4.74
The best fit models still seemed to Quartic
in the end.

(Waste)
y=-0.000103x^4+0.812887x^3-
2415.91x^2+3019105x-1.57054

(Population)
y=0.000028x^4-0.220892x^3+654.129x^2-
860913x+4.24894

Predicted Waste Predicted
Population
2014 - 291 Million 2014 - 318 Million
2020 - 327 Million 2020 - 344 Million


My Household
Day 1 5.34 Pounds
Day 2 5.78 Pounds
Day 3 4.35 Pounds
Day 4 4.2 Pounds
Day 5 4.62 Pounds
Day 6 5.8 Pounds
Day 7 4.98 Pounds
Avg: 5.01 Pounds per day
Pounds in a year: 1828.65
It seems by the end of the year that I would
contributing a fair amount of trash to the total number
which is quite sad. But, I might try and fix this number
by recycling and doing other means to lower this large
number.