The environment is one of the most important things on the Earth. It provides us with clean air, gives us food.....the list could go on forever. Here are some very interesting facts about our Earth and how we're treating it.

 

Water Facts:

About one quarter of all waste water is dumped into the ocean.

A faucet dripping at the rate of one drop per second wastes 880 gallons of water a year.

Every ton of recycled paper saves 7,000 gallons of water that would be used in paper production.

Plastic Bag Facts:

Approximately 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year.

Approximately 100 billion of the 380 billion are plastic shopping bags.

An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many bags.

Only 1% to 2% of plastic bags in the USA end up getting recycled.

It is estimated that 500 billion plastic bags are used and discarded worldwide every year.

1 million plastic bags are used and discarded every minute of the day.

Single use plastic bags made of HDPE remain in the environment for up to approximately 1,000 years.

Air Facts:  

It is estimated that every four out of ten people in the US live where air is unhealthy to breathe.

Half of all acid rain deposits in Canada are caused by pollution from US sources.

One compact fluorescent light bulb will last ten times longer than a standard light bulb and save half a ton of carbon dioxide released by a typical coal-burning power plant as it produces the electricity to light the bulb.

One mature tree consumes an average of 13 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Recycling Facts:  

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.

If pilgrims had to use aluminum cans at the first Thanksgiving meal, the cans would still be around today.

Every twenty minutes, Americans dump enough cars into junkyards to form a stack as high as the Empire State Building.

Only about one tenth of all solid garbage in the U.S. gets recycled.

Energy Facts:

In one year, people on the earth use up the amount of fossil fuel it took one million years to produce.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy- an average American household consumes energy equal to 1,253 gallons of oil per year.

If we lowered our heating temperature 6 degrees for 24 hours, we could save more than 570,000 barrels of oil.

The paper industry is the single largest user of fuel oil in the U.S.