Just Some Thoughts

It's easy to get overwhelmed thinking about the catastrophic state of our planet and forget about the impact that one person can actually make, just by being aware of small (at times seemingly insignificant) things. Because of this, I wanted to compile a short list of facts that make you think about how much of a difference each one of us could actually be responsible for...

-The average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, including 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper
-Americans throw away enough aluminum every 3 months to completely and totally rebuild the country's entire commercial air fleet.
- Just today, 62 million newspapers will be printed and 44 million will be thrown away. This results in the equivalent of about 500,000 trees thrown into a landfill every week.
- In his/her lifetime, the average American will throw away about approximately 600 times his/her adult body weight in garbage; this translates into each adult leaving behind about 90,000 pounds of trash for his/her child to deal with.
- By recycling just 1 aluminum can, enough energy is saved to run a TV for 3 hours or to light 1 100 watt bulb for 20 hours.
- A heavy coat of dust on a light bulb can block up to half its light.
- A water faucet that leaks one drop per second can add up to 165 pounds in one month.
- A crack that is only 1/16th of an inch in a window frame lets out enough heat (or lets in enough cold air) to be equivalent to having the window open 3 inches.

Considering some of these helped renew my commitment to believing that my actions can and do make a difference! In the words of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, "Brick by brick my citizens, brick by brick."

Sources:
www.pdx.edu/sustainability/recycling-facts
http://www.sustain.ucla.edu/