Sometimes it takes a few cold hard facts to drive home the point that North Americans are consuming a disproportionate amount of materials. In fact, the vast majority of the developing world is over-consuming resources. We have compiled a selection of recycling organizations tracking the consumption patterns of the greediest people on the planet.
Do Something: http://www.dosomething.org
- Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups that cannot decompose or be recycled.
- Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
Earth911: http://earth911.org/
- Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.
- Since 1950, Canadians have consumed as much as all the generations before us combined.
- In North America we produce enough garbage each day to fill 70,000 garbage trucks. Lined up bumper to bumper, over a year, they would stretch halfway to the moon.
- To create just one kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers create five kilograms of waste.
Recycling Council of British Columbia: http://www.rcbc.bc.ca
- Canadians generate about 30 million tons (Mt) of waste annually.
- Landfill sites account for about 38% of Canada’s total methane emissions.
- Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Recycle More: http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/
- Every year in the UK, residents use 13 billion steel cans that, if you placed them end-to-end, would stretch to the moon - three times.
Recycle Now: http://www.recyclenow.com/facts/
- On average, every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks.
Waste Connect: http://www.wasteconnect.co.uk/
- The number of computer printed pages stands at between 2.5 and 2.8 trillion worldwide and is predicted to grow over the next 10 years.
Waste Online: http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/
- Every year UK households throw away the equivalent of 3 ½ million double-decker buses (almost 30 million tons), a queue of which would stretch from London to Sydney (Australia) and back.
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