WASHINGTON — Here’s a stat that stinks: Around the world, people throw away about 4 million tons of trash each day — or roughly 2.6 pounds of trash per person.

And in the U.S., the majority of that garbage goes straight to the country’s 2,000 landfills, where it can sit for years (450 years for a disposable diaper and 1 million years for a glass bottle). 

In her new book, “This Book Stinks: Gross Garbage, Rotten Rubbish and the Science of Trash,” Sarah Wassner Flynn breaks down the dirty details surrounding trash and the best ways to minimize it.

Click through the gallery below for her tips on cleaning up the planet, one piece of garbage at a time.

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Correction: A previous version said, “The average American family throws away about $1,500 worth of food every day.” This has been changed to “year.”