Educate and Promote 

Quick Facts and Figures

Little notes on statistics such as these can be helpful in illustrating the usefulness of a waste reduction program. They can be included in memos, signs, brochures, newsletters, or creatively used for program celebration events. If you have a fact with its source, let us know!

Landfills:

• Each person in the US throws away about 4.5 pounds of trash per day, most of which goes to solid waste landfills.
  Nearly a ton of waste materials per person is landfilled each year.
• There are approximately 160 landfill gas (LFG) energy recovery facilities in the US.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 700 US landfills could install economically viable LFG energy recovery systems.
• As of October 1997, EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) participants have credited the LMOP with assisting more than 30 LFG energy recovery projects.
• These projects have helped improve air quality, removing the equivalent of more than 47,000 cars from the road, which is equal to planting more than 100,000 acres of trees.

Above taken from: US EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program, Washington, DC

• We dump most of the magazines printed in the US each year (about 8 million tons ) into landfills. If we recycled just half of them, we could save over 12 million cubic yards of landfill space. EarthWorks Groups (1990) 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel.

Recycling:

• If Americans reduced waste generation to 1990 levels and increased recycling from the current 27 percent to 35 percent, greenhouse gases would be reduced as much as if nearly 7 million cars were taken off the road for one year. EPA, Climate Change & Waste Website

Paper

• Each of us uses approximately one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products per year. (American Forest and Paper Association, 1996.)
• More than a quarter (28%) of the stationary and other fine paper recovered in America is recycled into tissue. (American Forest and Paper Association, 1996.)
• The average American recycled 329 pounds of paper in 1996 (America Recycles Day).

Below taken from Paper Efficiency: What It Is…And How to Achieve It, Principal Research Associate, Energy Analysis Program, Energy and Environment Division: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by Bruce Nordman Also: National Office Paper Recycling Project (NOPRP)

• Paper prices vary, but a typical bulk cost is $1,000/ton, which is $2.50 per ream of 500 sheets, half a cent per sheet, 50 cents per pound, or 3 cents per ounce.
• A ream of unused paper is about 2 inches thick, so there are 250 sheets per inch, 3,000 sheets per foot, and each sheet is 0.004 inches thick.
• Pulp mills in the US consume more than 12,000 square miles of forest each year; almost half of all trees cut now end up as paper, and the percentage is increasing.

Below taken from "Profiles in Garbage: Office Paper." Chaz Miller, Waste Age (April 1998).

• 208 pounds of printing and writing paper per person were generated in 1996.
• Office paper has the highest recovery rate of any segment of printing and writing paper.
• 988 million tons of printing and writing paper were recycled for a 35.5% recovery rate in 1996.
• 8.8 million tons of office paper was generated municipally in 1996 (industry data).
• 51.3 pounds of office paper per person is generated. (1995 US EPA estimates).
• Landfilled office paper weighs 800 pounds per cubic yard. (1995 US EPA estimates).

Glass

• Recycling 1 ton of glass saves the equivalent of 10 gallons of oil. Indiana Dept. of Education. (1992). Waste Reduction Guide, Indiana Dept. of Education, Room 229, State House, Indianapolis, IN 46204-2798.
• About 75% of the United State's glass is used for packaging. EarthWorks Groups (1990) 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel.
• Most bottles of jars contain at least 35% recycled glass. Glass never wears out - it can be recycled forever. Jerry Powell, editor of Resource Recycling Magazine, 1996. Also, National Recovery Rate for 1993 - GPI.
• Recycling a glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours. San Diego County Office of Education. (1991). RAYS - Recycle and You Save. San Diego County Office of Education, San Diego, CA. 619-974-2661.

Metals:

Aluminum

• Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent of 2350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the typical home over a period of 10 years. Indiana Department of Education. (1992). Waste Reduction Guide. Indiana Department of Education, Room 229, State House, Indianapolis, IN 46204-2798.
• Americans throw away about 35 billion aluminum cans every year. If all of these cans were recycled we would save an amount of energy equivalent to 150 Exxon Valdez oil spills annually. State of California Dept. of Health Services, Toxic Substances Control Program, Handbook from the Toxic Substances Control Program, Dept. of Health Services, Office of Public Government Liaison - Education and Information Unit, 400 P Street, PO Box 942732, Sacramento, CA 94234-7320.
• Recycling a six-pack of aluminum cans could save enough energy to drive a car 5 miles. One can equals the amount of energy a can half-full of gasoline would produce. San Diego County Office of Education. (1991). RAYS - Recycle and You Save. San Diego county Office of Education, San Diego, CA. 619-974-2661.
• One recycled aluminum can saves enough electricity to operate a TV for 3 hours. South Carolina Electric & Gas Company. (1991). Recycle - Save Energy, South Carolina Clean & Beautiful, 1205 Pendleton Street, Suite 517, Columbia, SC 29201.

The following came from The Great Aluminum Can Roundup. (1993) Can Manufacturers Institute, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036.

• Using recycled aluminum beverage cans to produce new cans allows the aluminum can industry to make up to 20 times more cans for the same amount of energy.
• If aircraft carriers were made of aluminum beverage cans, more than 15 aircraft carriers could have been built in 1992 from the 1,070,331 tons recycled.
• The aluminum beverage can returns to the grocer's shelf as a new, filled can in as little as 90 days after collection, remelting, rolling, manufacturing and distribution. Consumers could purchase the same recycled aluminum can from a grocer's shelf every 13 weeks or 4 times a year.
• Every minute of every day an average of 119,292 aluminum cans are recycled.
• According to the US EPA, aluminum cans represent less than 1% of the nation's solid waste stream.
• Aluminum can recycling saves 95% of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore. Energy savings in 1992 were enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for 6 years.
• It's estimated that since 1972 some 13 million tons of aluminum cans have been recycled. These 534.7 billion aluminum cans placed end-to-end could stretch to the moon some 170 times.

Compost:

• In test corn plots in Minnesota, fields treated with both compost and fertilizer achieved yields 17% higher than fields spread with only commercial fertilizer. R.W. Beck and Associates. (1998). Solid Waste Issues and Answers. R.W. Beck and Associates, 2121 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121.
• In the US, yard trimmings and food scraps make up about one-fourth of our waste stream. State of California Dept. of Health Services, Toxic Substances Control Program, Handbook from the Toxic Substances Control Program, Dept. of Health Services, Office of Public Government Liaison - Education and Information Unit, 400 P Street, PO Box 942732, Sacramento, CA 94234-7320
• In Sacramento County, 150,000 cubic yards of grass clippings (or the equivalent of a 7 story building the size of a football field) are sent to landfills every year. Sacramento County Utilities - Composting Program, Sacramento County Utilities, 9700 Goethe Road, Suite C, Sacramento, CA 95827. 916-855-5666.
• Americans throw away about 10% of the food they buy at the supermarket. This results in dumping the equivalent of more than 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year. EarthWorks Groups (1990) 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel.
• One pound of red worms can consume half a pound of food waste every day. Havstad, Nelson, and Shaffer, Compost! A Teacher's Guide to Activities & Resources in the East Bay, 1991, Alameda County Home Composting Education Program

Packaging:

• Americans throw out twice as much packaging as they did in 1960. The Earth Works Groups, 50 Simple Things to Do to Save the Earth, 1989.
• Thirty percent of municipal solid waste is made up of packaging. EarthWorks Groups, 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth,1990. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel.
• When a climbing team reached North America's highest peak, they found a pile of partially eaten food, foil wrappers from freeze-dried meals, plastic bags, and other trash left behind by previous climbers. G. Tyler Miller, Jr., Living in the Environment,1990.
• In 1999, 50% of plastic peanuts collected at the Plastic Loose Fill Council's 1,600 US centers were reused!! The Plastic Loose Fill Council's Peanut Hotline.

The following are from "Profiles in Garbage: Aluminum Packaging," Chaz Miller, Waste Age (October 1997)

• Aluminum cans account for 99% of the beverage can market.
• 25% of the aluminum used in America goes into packaging.
• 1,620,000 tons of cans per year. (1995 US EPA estimates).
• 350,000 tons of foil per year. (1995 US EPA estimates)

Junk Mail:

• About 44% of junk mail is never opened or read. EarthWorks Groups (1990). 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Kansas City, Andrews and McMeel.
• If a million people stopped their junk mail, we'd save 1.5 million trees. EarthWorks Groups (1990). 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth, Kansas City, Andrews and McMeel.
• Americans toss out 2 million tons of junk mail annually, at a hauling cost of more than $320 million. (Zero Junk Mail)

Yard Waste:

The following are from "Profiles in Garbage: Yard Waste," Chaz Miller, Waste Age (January 1998)

• 29.7 million tons or 14.3% by weight. (1995 US EPA estimates).
• 225 pounds of yard waste per person.
• 9 million tons of yard waste are composted at composting facilities, for a 30% composting rate. (1994 US EPA estimates).
• 4.4 million tons grasscycled or composted in backyard composting piles in 1994.

Consumption:

• Based on the 4.5 pounds of garbage per person per day, the average American will leave a legacy of 112,420 pounds of trash for his or her children. US EPA, Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the US, 1994
• The average American consumer uses nearly 20 tons of raw materials each year, twice that of the average Japanese or European. David Morris, "As if Materials Mattered," Amicus Journal, Fall 1991

The following are from "United Nations Report Highlights Consumption Crisis," Enough! Winter 1998/99, 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 900, Takoma Park, MD 20912.

• Globally, the 20% of the world's people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures, the poorest 20% a miniscule 1.3%.
• A child born in the industrial world adds more to consumption and pollution over his or her lifetime than do 30-50 children born in developing countries.

Other:

• 10,000 tons of recycled material creates 32 jobs. US Dept. of Transportation, Waste News 10/7/96.
• The US Postal Service purchases 100,000 retreaded tires annually. US Postal Service.
• US hospitals produced 16 pounds of waste per patient per day in 1996. Environmental Working Group.

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