Pollution

• Regional estimates for carbon emissions estimated in millions of tons in 1983 include: US and Canada - 1,245; Western Europe - 753; USSR and Eastern Europe - 1,279; developing nations of Asia, Latin America and Africa - 738; China and Central Asia - 482; and Central Japan and Australia - 287.


• Each year, Americans throw away 18 billion disposable diapers, enough to construct a trail stretching from the Earth to the Moon 240,000 miles away and back again seven times. Use cloth diapers. Disposable diapers are not biodegradable.


• Consumers and industry in the US throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet every three months.


• Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour: One for every resident of the state of Iowa.


• In the US, we throw away enough iron and steel every day to supply all the nation's automakers daily.


• Every year, Americans throw away enough wood and paper to heat 5 million homes for 200 years.


• More than 60% of the waste collected on beaches is plastic.


• The average American throws out about 6 lbs. of tin cans every month.


• The average American throws out 2 lbs. of plastic containers every month.


• New York City workers discard an estimated 600-700 tons of paper every day.


• Paper makes up about 41% of our trash.


• Packaging makes up a third of our trash.


• Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products.


• States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.


• The US exports more waste paper than any other country.


• The city of Philadelphia ships its waste as far away as Ohio.


• The Mobro garbage barge from Islip, NY, was turned away from 11 states and 5 countries.


• Employees of financial businesses generate about 2 lbs. of paper a day -- per person.


• There are 40 facilities in the US which recover landfill gas.


• Six billion pens are thrown away every year in the US.


• Metals make up 9% of all municipal solid waste (by weight).


• The largest component of trash in landfills is newspaper (14% by volume).


• In 1989, America used about 14 million tons of newsprint.


• It takes half a barrel of crude oil to produce the rubber in just one tire.


• Americans throw away around 10% of the food they buy at the supermarket.


• Between 1960 & 1984, the number of soda containers in America's garbage tripled.


• Glass makes up 8% of trash thrown out by US households.


• Every day, Americans spend $250,000 getting rid of old tires.


• Connecticut burns the most garbage. (67%)


• The state of Texas has the most landfills in the US.


• Americans buy two billion disposable razors and razor blades every year.


• 5, an estimated 10,000 hogs roamed New York City, eating garbage.


• If the Pilgrims had 6-packs, we'd still have the plastic rings from them today.


• The average baby generates a ton of garbage every year.


• Three million cars are abandoned every year in the US.


• Trash disposal costs the US over $10 billion a year.


• The US contributes 29% of the world's CFCs.


• $1 out of every $11 Americans spend for food goes for packaging.


• An estimated 2 to 3 billion tires are currently stockpiled in the US.


• More than a million tons of plate glass, mirrors, test tubes, and light bulbs are thrown away every year.


• Americans throw away the equivalent of more than 30 million trees in newsprint every year.


• Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year -- enough to build a 12-ft high wall of paper from New York to California.


• Every year, we use the equivalent of 120 corrugated cardboard boxes for every American.


• In 1988, Americans used enough kraft paper for a person to take a brown bag lunch to school or work for 64 million years.


• Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year. Most of it winds up in the landfills.


• one books from Phoenix, Arizona alone generated 6,000 tons of wastepaper every year.


• Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.


• It will take as many as four centuries for vinyl to decompose in a landfill.


• Every year, we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.


• Of the almost 3.2 billion pounds of polypropylene used for packaging in 1988, 98% of it was thrown away.


• Every year, Americans use more than 25 billion polystyrene foam cups.