Trash is defined as anything worthless, useless, or discarded. Unfortunately, Americans are professionals at producing garbage. In fact, the average American family throws away four and a half pounds of trash every day and overall we produce 243 million tons of trash in a year (Smith). The problem of waste generation has existed for centuries, but has continued to be ignored by the general population. Producing excessive amounts of waste doesn't bother most Americans, or they aren't aware of the problem, otherwise the eye-popping statistics wouldn't exist. One of the main reasons people produce large amounts of garbage is out of sheer laziness. For example, my roommate threw out a toaster because she got a new one, and after being asked why she didn't donate it, her response was, "It's too much work." Donating this toaster would have required extra effort and time that she was not willing to use. This is often the same dilemma as recycling which sometimes requires a person to drive and place recyclables into containers themselves. People are not willing to make even a minimum effort to help preserve the earth. However, much of this may be because people don't realize how big a problem waste generation is. In larger cities like New York and Cleveland, Ohio, there are trash police, also called green police. Local governments in several larger cities have placed computer chips in recycling bins and garbage containers. These computer chips allow the government to monitor and observe who participates and to what extent they participate in money laundering. Some cities use chips to identify community areas that have low levels of recycling...... middle of paper ......r 2014.government-stimulus/>.Cohen, Steve. “New York Observer.” Wasted: New York City's Giant Waste Problem.Np, April 03, 2008. Web. March 31, 2014.problem/>.. New York Corporate Recycling: Enforcement and Penalties. The City of New York, nd Web. March 28, 2014.cement.shtml>.Palmer, Brian. “Go West, Dumpster!” Are we running out of space for our trash?.NP, 02 Feb 2011. Web. 28 March 2014. "The waste problem." Toxics Action Center. Toxic Action Center, n.d. Web. March 28, 2014. Smith, Vincent. "Reduce waste, learn to reuse!". Silent Springs. NP, 06 August 2012. Web. 22 March 2014. learning to reuse/>.