Go Green!

Fast Facts

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

• Americans comprise of 4.7% of the world’s population, but use 25% of the earths’s resources
• Americans account for 40% of the world wide gas consumption, burning 155 billion gallons annually.
• American consumption accounts for 25% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emmissions.
• Since 1950, Americans have consumed more resources than the world’s entire population in human history before that date.
• On average, each American generates 4 and 1/2 pounds of waste per day
• We spend more for trash bags than 90 of the earth’s 210 countries spend for everything.

• Recycling a six-pack of aluminum cans can save enough energy to drive a car 5 miles.
• Every ton of newspaper that’s recycled saves 4,100 kWh of electricity, enough to power a TV for 31 hours.
• The energy equivalent of 16.3 barrels of oil is used to produce on ton of plastic bottles.
• Steel recycling saves enough energy to electrically power the equivalent of 18 milllion homes a year.
• Americans waste 500,000 trees every Sunday by throwing away their newspapers instead of recycling them.

Sources:
Getis, Judith. You Can Make a Difference. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Go Green Initiative. .
Neighborhood News, Ruxton-Riverwood-Lake Roland Area Improvement Association Winter 2007.
Urbanska, Wanda, and Frank Levering. Nothing's Too Small to Make a Difference. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, Publisher, 2004.

Labels: environment, recycle, waste

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