Our Wasteful Ways
Here are just a few facts that might make you
think twice before making that extra photocopy
or asking for extra plasticware with your
lunch.
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By: Norm Clausen
 To Go Waste
• Americans toss out enough paper & plastic
cups, forks, and spoons every year to circle
the equator 300 times.
• Each year, Americans throw away some 100
billion polyethylene plastic bags—330 for
every man, woman, and child. Only 0.6% of
plastic bags are recycled.
• Nearly 44 million American workers purchase
or eat lunch out every weekday.
• Almost 1/3 of the waste generated the U.S.
is packaging.
Office Waste
• Each year, Americans trash enough office
paper to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles
to New York City.
• Americans make nearly 400 billion photocopies
a year—about 750,000 copies every
minute of every day.
• 30 billion faxes were sent in the U.S. in 1990.
• U.S. businesses use about 21 million tons of
paper every year. That’s about 175 pounds of
paper for each American.
• The average American office worker uses
around 500 disposable cups every year.
Rainforest Facts
• Covering less than 2% of the Earth’s total surface
area, the world’s Rainforests are home to
50% of the Earth’s plants and animals.
• Nearly 1/2 the medicinal compounds we use
on a daily basis come from plants endemic to
the Rainforest.
• More than 20% of the world’s oxygen is provided
by the Amazon Rainforest.
• Every second, a slice of rainforest the size of
a football field is mowed down. That’s 86,400
football fields per day, or 31 million each
year.
Waste facts courtesy of the Clean Air Council.
For more facts like these, check out:
www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html
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