Our New Book “Signals” is Officially Published!

If you’re a regular visitor to Visual Capitalist, you know that we’re your home base for data-driven, visual storytelling that helps explain a complex world.

But did you know there’s a way to get even more out of Visual Capitalist, all while helping support the work we do?

More Visuals. More Insight. More Understanding.

VC+ is our members program that gives you exclusive access to extra visual content and insightful special features. It also gets you access to The Trendline, our twice a week members-only newsletter that features the very best visualizations and data releases.

So what is getting sent to members in the coming weeks for VC+ in August?

New to VC+ in August 2022

“2022 Prediction Consensus: Mid-Year Update”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: A Mid-Year Check In on the Expert Predictions for 2022

We check in on our annual Prediction Consensus to see whether or not expert forecasts for 2022 have been coming to fruition so far.

Along with checking in on past predictions, this VC+ Special Dispatch will also take a look at new forecasts and outlooks experts have put out for how they think the rest of the year will close out.

Coming Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022 (Get VC+ to access)

”Markets this Month: August Edition”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: Everything You Need to Know for This Month in the Markets

This Special Dispatch exclusive to VC+ subscribers provides a high-level summary of the month’s key events and most important market trends. It’s our way of cutting through the noise and sending you the data that matters most for the markets this month.

August’s edition will include:

• An economic calendar of the biggest data and earnings releases to be aware of
• A handful of essential charts diving into the state of the markets
• And a collection of insightful links worth reading, watching, and listening to

Coming Tuesday, August 16th, 2022 (Get VC+ to access)

The Trendline

PREMIUM NEWSLETTER: Our Bi-Weekly Newsletter for VC+ Members

                     The Sunday Edition                                          The Midweek Edition

        The Best Visualizations Each Week                 The Best Data and Reports Each Week

                    >> View free sample                                            >> View free sample 

The Trendline is our premium newsletter sent to members twice a week.

On Sundays, we highlight the best visualizations on business, investing, and global trends that our editors have uncovered. On Thursdays in the Midweek Edition, we send you a round-up of the most interesting reports we find along with key charts and commentary.

The Trends Shaping the World—in Your Inbox

Get access to these upcoming features by becoming a VC+ member. And for a limited time, get 25% off, which makes your VC+ membership the same price as a coffee each month:

PS – We look forward to sending you even more great visuals and data!

Land of Waste: American Landfills by State

Each American produces a whopping 1,700 pounds of waste every year, making the United States the world’s most wasteful country.

Approximately half of the country’s yearly waste will meet its fate in one of the more than 2,000 active landfills across the nation.

In this graphic by Northstar Clean Technologies, we map and compare different states’ landfill waste per capita, using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

States With Highest Tons of Waste Per Person

Upper Midwestern and eastern industrial states rank highly on the trash-per-capita list, with Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio taking the top five spots.

The availability of cheap landfill space in Michigan attracts trucked-in garbage from out of state and even from Canada. That’s because, under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, waste is considered a commodity, and states and counties cannot restrict its import or export from other states or even other countries.

The state also faces challenges with recycling. Michigan’s statewide recycling rate is around 18%, while the national recycling rate is 32%.

Some states are accumulating new landfill waste faster than others. Indiana leads the nation with an annual “landfill waste acceptance rate” of 2.35 tons per year per resident.

States with Fewest Tons of Waste Per Person

More sparsely populated states such as Wyoming, Idaho, Maine, Vermont, and North and South Dakota, all rank among the states with the least landfill trash per resident.

Largely because it accepts considerably less trash by volume than most other states, Connecticut hosts the least buried trash per person, with only 8.7 tons per resident.

Food waste, plastics, and paper products make up more than half the garbage in U.S. landfills but other products like glass and metals, for example, can have a significant impact on the environment.

A Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity

One of the major sources of waste is the construction industry. Every year, around 12 million tons of used asphalt shingles are dumped into landfills across North America.

However, this material can be repurposed to create new materials like fiber, liquid asphalt, and construction aggregate, generating revenue while fighting climate change. In neighbor Canada, for example, recovering and reprocessing shingles is already a $1.3 billion market.

In this context, repurposing waste has not only become essential to minimizing waste, but also to creating new business opportunities going forward.

Northstar Clean Technologies’ mission is to be the leader in the recovery and reprocessing of asphalt shingles in North America.