April 17, 2014 – We are Almost There! 5 Days until Earth Day…
5% of the world’s people generate 40% of the world’s waste
Facts
- The United States is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year.
- In a lifetime, the average American will personally throw away 600 times his or her body weight, which for an average adult would leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash at the end of their lifetime.
- Americans throw away enough garbage everyday to fill 63,000 garbage trucks, which if lined up end to end for an entire year would stretch half way to the moon.
- Of the garbage Americans throw out, half could be recycled, which is enough to fill a football stadium from top to bottom every day.
- Americans use 15 million sheets of paper every 5 minutes, 60,000 plastic bags every 5 seconds, and throw away200,000 tons of edible food daily.
- The total amount of trash imported and exported around the United States is 40 million tons. The looming problem in the U.S. is that available landfill sites have dropped by 80% in the last few decades.
- Located halfway between the west coast of the United States and Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean floats a mass of plastic twice the size of Texas called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In some areas the plastics are estimated to be 90 feet thick.
- Humanity would need 5 Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as extravagantly as Americans.
Help our Reputation
- Educate yourselves on the availability of alternative “green” products you can use at home or at work.
- Live as if you’re in a recession.
- Understand what can be recycled and how. Pagan Poet lists over 100 recyclable items and where they can be recycled.
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