Did you know?

There are many simple ways to go green

Many people in developed nations simply are not aware of the impact each individual’s lifestyle can have on the environment. If you and the members of your household have not already implemented recycling and water conservation, now is the perfect time to start going green—February 14 through 21 is National Green Week!

Rising temperatures and changes in the environment have resulted in an assortment of natural disasters around the globe. Planet Earth has experienced devastating upheavals in the last few decades, including floods, tsunamis, tornadoes and earthquakes. No region is exempt.

Various organizations are devoted to drawing peoples’ attention to climate change so that everyone can opt for green alternatives. The Green Education Foundation (GEF) is an organization that calls on schools across the nation to improve their energy efficiency through simple changes of behavior. Their sustainability education program teaches children to take small steps that can have a big collective impact on the environment.

By improving the energy efficiency of schools, districts can cut costs without cutting corners. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that schools could save up to 50% of their energy costs by adopting fairly simple energy-saving measures and renovations. Some estimates suggest that a 25% reduction in energy costs would save $1.5 billion! These savings could fund 30,000 new teacher salaries, 40 million textbooks or hundreds of thousands of computers.

GEF initiatives can easily be incorporated into everyday living by one and all.

The foundation provides some sobering statistics about trash:

  • The U.S. is the number one trash producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person/per year.
  • Paper products make up the largest part of our trash (approximately 40%).
  • Energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a TV set for three hours and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.
  • Glass is one of the very few products that can be completely recycled again and again. However, if it ends up in a landfill it will never decompose.
  • Plastic bags and other plastic thrown into the ocean kills as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
  • Each person in the United States created a daily average of 4.5 pounds (2.04 kilograms) of solid waste.
  • According to a 2010 EPA estimate, Americans create roughly 251 million tons (228 million metric tons) of garbage per year. To visualize this number, imagine the RMS Titanic, which weighed 46,329 gross tons (47,072 metric tons). The United States generates more than 4,837 Titanics worth of solid waste in a normal calendar year.

Recycling is clearly necessary. Recycling one ton of paper would:

  • Save enough energy to power the average American home for six months
  • Save 7,000 gallons of water
  • Save 380 gallons of oil
  • Save 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one metric ton of carbon equivalent (MTCE)

We can all go green by recycling because by doing so, we help to:

  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions that can contribute to climate change by avoiding methane emissions and reducing energy required for a number of paper products.
  • Extend the fiber supply and contributes to carbon sequestration.
  • Save considerable landfill space.
  • Reduce energy and water consumption.
  • Decrease the need for disposal (i.e., landfill or incineration which decreases the amount of CO2 produced).

Look at it another way:

  • If every American recycled his or her newspaper just one day a week, we would save about 36 million trees a year.
  • For every four-foot stack of paper you recycle, you save a tree.
  • Ton for ton, recycling reduces more pollution, saves more energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions more than any other solid waste management option.
  • Using recycled aluminum requires 96% less energy than manufacturing new aluminum from its virgin material, bauxite. Other commonly recycled items have a strong energy reduction when compared with the energy intensity used to extract their virgin materials.

We need to go green by conserving water, because:

  • Water covers about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, but considerably less than one percent of it is fresh water available for human use. The water found at the Earth’s surface in lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, and swamps makes up only 0.3% of the world’s fresh water.
  • The average American uses about 100 gallons of water a day, substantially more than any other country, a factor that is contributing to the significant stress on our nation’s water resources.
  • Current trends indicate that demands on the nation’s supplies are growing while the supply continues to be depleted at an unsustainable rate.
  • Globally, we face monumental challenges in meeting the water demand of the current and projected population.
  • The average American family of four uses around 400 gallons of water per day at home. Roughly 70 percent of this use occurs indoors.
  • Around 700 million people in 43 countries suffer today from water scarcity.
  • In the United States, nearly seven billion gallons of water is devoted to outdoor water use every day.
  • At one drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year.
  • One in eight people worldwide does not have access to safe and clean drinking water.

Spread the word and make Green Week global!