Solid waste includes any discarded or abandoned materials that must be safely disposed of like household trash, commercial waste, and recycling. New Yorkers generated 5.15 pounds of trash per person per day, which is 12% higher than the national average. However, New York’s overall waste sent to landfills has been reduced by half over the last 20 years—from 14.6 million tons in 1990 to 7.7 million tons in 2012. Also, the number of landfills has been significantly reduced from 348 in the 80s to only 59 today with the closures of small, local municipal landfills that violated federal and state regulations, but even with a decrease in the number of landfills and combustors, the state has an estimated remaining capacity of 21 to 25 years. New York State has stepped up on managing waste through reduction, reuse and recycling, including composting of organic waste and changing electronic waste practices, but shifting the focus from disposing of waste to decreasing waste will keep up the progress made.