WATER

· About 75 percent of the water we use in our homes is used in the bathroom. (California Energy Commission, 2006)

· Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours. (EPA, 2008)

· Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year; A leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water every day. If your fixtures have leaks, you should get them repaired! (EPA, 2008)

· The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at bedtime can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month. (EPA, 2008)

· A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons. (EPA, 2008)

· If your toilet is from 1992 or earlier, you probably have an inefficient model that uses between 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Newer, high-efficiency toilets use less than 1.3 gallons per flush — that’s at least 60 percent less water per flush! (EPA, 2008)

· If just 1 percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a new WaterSense labeled toilet, the country would save more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough electricity to supply more than 43,000 households for one month. (EPA, 2008)

· Most people realize that hot water uses up energy, but supplying and treating cold water requires a significant amount of energy too. American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours per year — enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. (EPA, 2008)

· If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! (EPA, 2008)

· The average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load, whereas newer, high-efficiency washing machine models use less than 28 gallons of water per load. (EPA, 2008)

· The typical single-family suburban household uses at least 30 percent of their water outdoors for irrigation. Some experts estimate that more than 50 percent of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by overwatering!

· Consider installing a drip irrigation system to water your lawn and garden. These systems use between 20 to 50 percent less water than conventional in-ground sprinkler systems. They are also much more efficient than conventional sprinklers because no water is lost to wind, runoff, and evaporation. (EPA, 2008)

· If one out of every 100 American homes was retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year — avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year! (EPA, 2008)

· Between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. population nearly doubled. However, in that same period, public demand for water more than tripled! Americans now use an average of 100 gallons of water each day — enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses! (EPA, 2008)

· A recent government survey showed that at least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013. (EPA, 2008)

ALUMINUM

· Recycling one aluminum beverage can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours or a tv for 2 hours.

· 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.

· An average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled every minute of every day.

· Recycling one ton of aluminum saves 37 barrels of oil.

· Recycling 125 aluminum cans saves enough energy to power one home for 1 day.

· It takes 4 tons of ore to produce one ton of aluminum.

GLASS

· It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill.

· In the U.S. today, 34% of all glass containers are recycled.

· Most bottles and jars contain at least 25% recycled glass.

· Glass never wears out – it can be recycled forever.

· Recycling glass saves 25-32% of the energy used to make glass.

· Glass containers save 9 gallons of fuel (oil) for every ton of glass recycled.

PAPER

· Americans use over 67,000,000 tons of paper each year, or 600 pounds per person.

· It takes more than 500,000 trees to produce the newspapers Americans read each Sunday, yet only 30% of all newspapers are recycled.

· Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity – enough energy to power the average American home for 5 months.

· Producing recycled paper requires about 60% of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.

· Every day, Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million. That’s the equivalent of dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill every week.

· If everyone in the U.S. recycled just 1/10th of their newsprint, we would save the estimated equivalent of about 25 million trees a year.

· In the manufacturing process of recycled paper

· 74% less air pollution is generated

· 35% less water pollution is generated

· 58% less water is required

· 64% less energy is required

· One ton of high-grade recyclable paper can substitute for approximately 3 tons of wood in making new paper products.

· Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

PLASTIC

· Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill.

· Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.

· For every 7 trucks needed to deliver paper grocery bags to the store, only 1 is needed to carry the same number of plastic grocery bags.

· By using plastic in packaging, American product manufacturers save enough energy each year to power a city of 1 million homes for 3 _ years.

· As much as 40% of selected plastic parts from damaged or discarded cars are repaired and reused.

· Over 1.5 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic bottles were recycled during 1999, accounting for 22% (by weight) of all plastic bottles produced in the U.S.

· PET bottles (soda & water) and HDPE bottles (milk, laundry detergent) are the most commonly collected plastic materials in community recycling programs.

· 95% of all plastic bottles in the U.S. market are manufactured from PET or HDPE. 56% of recycled PET finds a market in the manufacture of fiber (carpet & clothing). 29% of HDPE recycled bottles go into making new bottles and 18% goes into the plastic pipe industry.

· Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas.

· Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.

STEEL

· Recycling tin and steel cans saves between 60-74% of the energy used to produce them from raw materials.

· 1 ton of recycled steel saves the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil, and 1.49 tons of iron ore over the production of new steel.

· Steel cans were recycled at the rate of 58% in 2001.

· The amount of steel recovered through recycled packaging in 2001 (nearly 1.5 million tons) would yield enough steel to build 185,000 steel framed homes.

· In 2001, nearly 2 million tons of steel was recovered from recycled appliances.

· The steel from the more than 39 million appliances recycled last year yielded enough steel to build about 160 stadiums the size of the new Pittsburgh Steelers stadium.

· In 2001, there were 26 cars recycled every minute across the U.S.

· Each year steel recycling saves the energy equivalent to electrically power about 1/5th of the households in the U.S. (or about 18 million homes) for 1 year.

· Every ton of steel recycled saves 2,500 lbs. of iron ore, 1,400 lbs. of coal and 120 lbs. of limestone.

· Annually, enough energy is saved by recycling steel to supply Los Angeles with electricity for almost 10 years.

· You can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make 1 new one.

BATTERIES

· Battery acid is recycled by converting it to sodium sulfate for laundry detergent, glass and textile manufacturing.

GENERAL

· The average person throws away 4 pounds of garbage PER DAY.

· Paper is the most common item found in our trash.

· Product packaging accounts for 1/3 of our trash.

· Solid waste disposal is the third largest municipal government expense after police protection and education.

· The nation’s annual generation of municipal solid waste rose steadily from 88 million tons in 1960 to 232 million tons in 2002.

· Recycling all of your home’s waste newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 lbs. a year.

· The garbage in a landfill stays for a for about 30 years.

· In 1995 over 200 of the world landfills were full.

· Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.

· One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!

· More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home

· Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year

· We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year

· 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.

· The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.

· Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

· Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each ear ends up in the ocean.

· The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours

· For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.

· Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees

· Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees

· The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years

· Earth is 2/3 water. but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.

· 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year

· It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones

· 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year

· 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.

· Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.

· Each year billions of used batteries are thrown away in the United States. This constitutes 88% of the mercury and 54% of the cadmium deposited into our landfills

· Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.

· Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.

· Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it’s best not to buy them.

· One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water. so dispose of properly!

· Here is an example of the water we use everyday:

3-7 gallons for toilet,
25-30 gallons for tub,
http://www.planetpals.com/50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons

· Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down:

plastics take 500 years,
aluminum cans take 500 years,
organic materials, take 6 months,
cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.

Please keep these recycling and waste facts in mind over the course of your day – remember, we ALL must do our parts to keep the world a green and environmentally healthy place to live!

**For more information about Earth-friendly products available at the Boise Co-op, click here.

-Dylan Haas