I. Energy Resources
Trash
– On average, Americans throw away about 3.5
pounds of trash each day.
– Between Thanksgiving and the New Year,
Americans throw up to 25% more trash,
amounting to a massive five million tons
extra. Of this, about four millions tons is
believed to be made up of wrapping paper
and shopping bags.
Energy Resources
Trash (continued)
– One third of all garbage thrown away by Americans is
packaging. As lots of packaging takes years to fully decompose,
it’s worth making the effort to try and cut down on the amount
of packaging and bags you use.
– Different types of rubbish take varying amounts of time to
properly decompose. Top of the offenders are Styrofoam and
plastic containers which take one million years to fully
decompose. A disposable (spot the irony in the name) diaper
200-
takes 550 years and an aluminum can takes between 200-500
years. At the other end of the scale, a wool sock takes one year
and a paper bag one month to decompose.
Energy Resources
Trash (continued)
– Estimates suggest that the average American office
worker uses up to 500 disposable coffee cups each
year.
– Unwanted junk mail is frequently thrown away and up
to 44% is ditched without even being opened.
– We use more than 67 million tons of paper each year
– which works out as about 580 pounds per person.
Energy Resources
Trash (continued)
– A large amount of garbage is either incinerated or
buried in landfills. About a quarter is currently
recycled, but if we were more careful and spent time
sorting and separating different types of materials,
we could significantly increase our recycling abilities.
– The time taken for glass to break down isn’t known.
However, as we’re still finding pieces of glass made
over 3000 years ago, we can only assume it’s a long
time!
Energy Resources
Waste and Natural Resource Use
– Every year, nearly 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide
raw materials for American paper and pulp mills
– The average American, in one lifetime, uses: 18 tons of paper,
23 tons of wood, 16 tons of metal, and 32 tons of organic
chemicals.
– America is home to 5% of the world's population, yet it
consumes 1/3 of the Earth's timber and paper; making paper the
largest part of the waste stream at 37.5% of the total waste
stream.
Energy Resources
Waste and Natural Resource Use
– Every 4 quarts of oil discarded during an average oil
change can contaminate 1 million gallons of water.
– About 200 million gallons of used motor oil is illegally
dumped in the US each year.
– People who change their own oil improperly dump the
equivalent of 16 Exxon Valdez spills into the nation's
sewers and landfills every year.
Energy Resources
• Recycling (def.) –
the collection and treatment of
discarded materials to make them into
useful products
(glass, aluminum, plastic, paper,
cardboard).
Reduce – the amount of materials you use
The 4 Reuse – what you can
R’s of
Ecology Recycle – the rest
Refuse – items not made of recycled materials