Doing more by throwing out less.

Did you know? The United States is home to 4% of the world’s population, yet produces more than 12% of the trash — to the tune of 4.9 pounds per person per day – and over 28% of our garbage is packaging. That means we throw out 82 million tons of material every year.

Want a scarier number? Every 15.5 hours, we throw out enough plastic to fill the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play, and 91% of it isn’t recycled. It’s enough to make you want to refill that olive oil bottle instead of buying a new one.

It’s no secret our groceries come with a lot more packaging every day, but we probably don’t think about it more than once a week when we take out the trash. The Almanac takes a look at two Peninsula “refilleries” trying to reduce our collective climate footprint.