Garbage Facts

The U.S. throws away around 200 million tons of garbage each day. The Average American generates about 4 pounds of garbage each day. That is approximately 1,460 pounds per person per year. Paper takes up as much as 50% of landfill space! If line up bumper to bumper, a string of garbage trucks hauling the nations daily waste could reach halfway to the moon.

The Life of Litter-Decomposition Rate of Trash
Source: The New York Times

• Paper: 2.5 months
• Orange Peel: 6 months
• Milk Carton: 5 years
• Cigarette Butt: 10 to 12 years
• Plastic Bag: 10 to 20 years
• Disposable Diaper: 75 years
• Tin Can: 100 years
• Beer Can: 200 to 500 years
• Styrofoam: never

Paper Facts

• A fifteen year old tree produces only 700 grocery bags.
• The average person in North America uses 250 Kg (551 lb.) of paper each year. If they recycled it, each person would save about 4.6 average-sized trees.
• When 1 ton of newsprint is recycled, 3 cubic meters of landfill space is saved and 13-17 trees are spared!
• A stack of newspaper, collected for recycling and piled one meter high, saves a 10 meter tall evergreen tree.

Environmental Advantages of Recycling

Source: Garten Services Inc.

For every ton of paper recycled:

• 17 pulpwood trees are conserved.
• 500 pounds of air pollutants are not emitted.
• 12,000 gallons of processed water are conserved.
• Water pollution is reduced by 40%.
• Energy equivalent to 96 gallons of gasoline are conserved.
• Solid waste pollution is reduced.
• 5 cubic yards of landfill space is conserved.
• The amount of money to process the landfill space is conserved.

Cans and Bottles:

• The energy saved from recycling one aluminum can will run your TV for 3 hours.
• It takes 2 plastic soft drink bottles to make enough polyester fiber for a baseball cap.
• When you recycle one glass bottle, you save the amount of energy needed to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours.
• Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
• The plastic from 5 soda bottles can completely insulate a ski jacket.
• Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours.