12/29/2010

Trash-conscious

Wait! Don't just ignore this post thinking I've just turned into a hippie or something (not that there's anything wrong with hippies). This is important.

A while ago I had to do a public service announcement for school and, as you might guess from the title, I did mine on trash. Well, more specifically, recycling. Anyway, in the process I found some shocking statistics on garbage. It's surprising we're not plowing through trash on sidewalks daily already.


The average person in the western world produces more than 500 kg (over 1,100 pounds) of trash per year. In the U.S., which is responsible for a quarter of the world's trash, the average person produces more than 1,600 pounds of trash each year (according to forbes.com). Worldwide, more than 1 billion tons of waste are produced every year.

I don't think you need me to tell you that that's a lot of trash.

Only about 20% of trash is recycled, and while that's better than nothing, about 80% could be recycled. So why isn't it?

Sure, you could just through that bottle away and forget about it, but it's not going to disappear. Well, at least not for about 1,000 years. You might never see your trash again, but your kids or grand-kids might. Find somewhere to recycle it instead. (And make sure you take the caps off bottles first, or they might not get recycled.)

So, if you're the average trash producer, and you recycle as much as you can, you'll only make about 100 kg of trash each year instead of 500 kg. And what if everyone did? 200,000 pounds instead of 1 billion per year. Huge difference. Then maybe we could imagine a future without mountains of garbage everywhere. Along with less dying animals and pollution. What are your thoughts on recycling? Is taking care of the environment worth the cost?

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and tell your friends and family too.

2 comments:

  1. Care about the planet? Good for you! We really do need to think about Mother Nature a bit more.

    Taylor

    ReplyDelete
  2. Woah those numbers are scary!
    I agree with you, my family has started recycling everything: papers, plastic bottles/containers, glass, cans and so on. I also really love how there has been a ban in some countries on plastic bags.
    Nice post :)

    ReplyDelete

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