Most Americans hardly give trash collection a second thought until there's an interruption in service. But consider this startling fact: the average American produces 4.6 pounds of garbage each and every day -- that's nearly 1,700 pounds of trash per year, adding up to a total of 251 million tons of trash generated each year in the U.S. alone.

Many forget about all that garbage the second the lid on the trash can snaps closed. But collecting, transporting, incinerating and storing all that waste safely and efficiently is big business -- the North American waste industry alone generates more than $52 billion in annual revenues.

The basic household and office trash we all produce is called municipal solid waste (MSW). Americans' per capita generation of MSW has been relatively stable since the early 1990s. So total waste volumes have been rising at a slow-but-steady pace alongside the growth in the total population. While there are some year-to-year variations in waste production, the garbage industry is relatively immune to economic swings.