The amount of waste generated by U.S. consumers leaps by 25% around the holidays, bumping our yearly output of garbage up from 199.9 million pounds to 249.9 million, based on calculations from the EPA’s 2010 measurements. A whopping one fifth of our annual trash load is produced during the holidays, making this not only the most wonderful time of the year, but also the most wasteful.With people buying more products in more packaging every day, fiscally, this is a bonanza–a gold mine, really.