At the occasion of 'Earth Hour Day' I want to share some facts with you. By reusing, reducing and recycling we can save energy and help save our planet earth. Why we need to re-use, reduce or recycle can be understood by having a glance at these facts. This fact sheet is enough to alarm us, why we need to adopt habits of saving energy by recycling, reducing and reusing.
- The garbage in a landfill stays for a for about 30 years.
- In 1995 over 200 of the world landfills were full.
- Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.
- One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!
- More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home
- Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year
- We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year
- 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.
- The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.
- Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
- Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each ear ends up in the ocean.
- The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours
- For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.
- Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees
- Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees
- The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years
- Earth is 2/3 water. but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.
- 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year
- It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones
- 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year
- 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.
- Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.
- Each year billions of used batteries are thrown away in the United States. This constitutes 88% of the mercury and 54% of the cadmium deposited into our landfills
- Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.
- Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.
- Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it's best not to buy them.
- One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water. so dispose of properly!
Here is an example of the water we use everyday:
- 3-7 gallons for toilet,
- 25-30 gallons for tub,
- 50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
- 1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
- 1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons
Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down:
- plastics take 500 years,
- aluminum cans take 500 years,
- organic materials, take 6 months,
- cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.
Facts provided by:
Planet Pals
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