Apr. 21--For regular folks who seek answers during these recessionary times, the traditional economic bellwethers -- from inventories to durable-goods orders -- may lack resonance.

Now comes an economic indicator that hits home -- specifically in the area beneath your kitchen sink.

The trash can.

For the second year in a row, the amount of waste generated in the United States has gone down, according to a new report from the consulting firm Waste Business Journal. The decline in 2007 -- from 513 million tons to 508 million -- was the first in more than 20 years, said James Thompson, the firm's president.

In 2008, the tally fell further, to 505 million tons, including some construction debris and other nonresidential discards. And it's not due to any increased diligence when it comes to setting aside newspapers and aluminum cans. Those figures are the total before recycling. Similar signs are present in Pennsylvania, the leading trash importer in the country.

In a nation where the consumer is king, is a shift under way?

For the waste-disposal industry, it has long been axiomatic that trash and the economy are stuck together like old gum on the bottom of a garbage pail.

"If we've got less money, we generate less trash," said Van Cooper, president of the union local that represents Philadelphia sanitation workers.

If Philadelphia is any guide, the drop-off was especially stark during last year's fourth quarter, a season traditionally awash in discarded wrappings and tinsel.

The city's quarterly trash total fell more than 100,000 tons compared with the fourth quarter of 2007, from 518,272 to 415,802, according to figures from the state Department of Environmental Protection. That's a drop of nearly 20 percent.

The news may cheer environmentalists, if it means the decreased consumption is a result of some sort of broad change in our have-it-now, chuck-it-tomorrow society. But will a thrifty mind-set catch on for good, as it did among some who endured the Great Depression?

Too soon to tell, said Daniel T. Cook, a sociologist who studies consumer culture at Rutgers University in Camden.

"The question is, of course, to what extent is this permanent?" Cook said. "Have people reevaluated something, or are they waiting for their particular world to pick up?"

Mind you, the waste pile is still pretty big -- especially in Pennsylvania, which accepts lots of the stuff from New Jersey and New York. Pennsylvania generated 14.6 million tons of its own in 2008 and took in 7.1 million tons from other states.

But both those totals are down.