Did You Know... Environmental Facts: Each person in the United States throws out about four pounds of garbage every day. New York City alone throws out enough garbage each day to fill the Empire State Building. In one day, Americans get rid of 20,000 cars and 4,000 trucks and buses. Fourteen billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year. (Statistic from 1992, hope it's less than that now!). Forty-three thousand tons of food is thrown out in the United States each day. Each hour, people in the United States use two and a half million plastic bottles. People in the United States throw out about 290 million tires every year. |
All the people in the United States make enough garbage each day to fill 100,000 garbage trucks. In only one day, people in the United States toss out 15,000 tons of packaging material. It takes 90% less energy to recycle an aluminum can than to make a new one. Sixty-five billion aluminum soda cans are used each year. Each 4 quarts of oil discarded during an average oil change can contaminate 1 million gallons of water. People who change their own oil improperly dump the equivalent of 16 Exxon Valdez spills into the nation's sewers and landfills every year. Every ton of paper that is recycled saves seventeen trees. Because diapers aren't biodegradable, they may actually outlive the great-grandchildren of the child who wore them. During the 1970's, futurests predicted that the computer revolution would eventually make paper obsolete. It has had the opposite effect, as computers make it possible to produce hard-copy documents more easily then ever before. One observer noted, new technologies have proven to be "not a contraceptive but a fertililty drug." Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the United States gets recycled. Remember...just because you throw it away, doesn't mean it goes away. Sources: Choose to Reuse : An Encyclopedia of Services, Businesses, Tools & Charitable Programs That Facilitate Reuse by Nikki Goldbeck, David Goldbeck available through amazon.com |
TIRE FACTS*: Number of scrap tires generated annually in the United States (2000): 273 million Approximate weight of these scrap tires: 3.6 million tons Percentage of total solid wastes generated: (2000): 1.8% Number of scrap tires going to a market (2000): 196 million Number of scrap tire processing facilities: 498 Number of scrap tires used for fuel (2000): 125 million Number of facilities using tire-derived fuel (1998): 72 Scrap tires used in civil engineering applications (2000): 30 million Number of scrap tires exported (2000): 15 million Scrap tires processed into ground rubber (2000): 18 million Scrap tires punched/stamped into new products (2000): 8 million Number of states with scrap tire legislation/regulations: 48 BTU's per pound of scrap tire rubber: 15,000 Average weight of a passenger car scrap tire: 20 pounds Number of states that ban whole tires from landfills: 33 Number of states that ban all scrap tires from landfills: 12 Number of states with no landfill restrictions: 5 Number of states with a fee: 30 States that allow Monofills: 7 Percentage of scrap tires that are passenger car tires: 84 Percentage of scrap tires that are from light and heavy trucks: 15 Percentage of heavy equipment, aircraft and off-road tires: 1 Range of weight for truck tires: 40 pounds to 10,000 pounds Amount of steel in a steel belted radial passenger car tires: 2.5 pounds Oil (equivalency) in a passenger car tire: 7 gallons Number of passenger car tires to equal one ton: 100 Specific gravity of tire rubber: 1.15 Number of polymers (rubber) used in tire construction: 3-4 Number of new products that contain recyclable tire rubber: 110 and counting Fastest growing new markets: playground cover, soil amendments, flooring/matting *Facts provided by the Scrap Tire Management Council. |
Source: National Geographic VOL 186 No. 1 July, 1994 |
