facts about waste

• In the past 30 years, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed.

• In the United States, less than 4% of the original forests remain.

• Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable.

• The US has 5% of the world’s population but consumes 30% of the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste.

• If everybody consumed at rates, similar to those of the UK we would need 3 to 5 planets to support us all.

• There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals on the market today.

• Only a handful of synthetic chemicals have even been tested for human health impacts and NONE have been tested for synergistic health impacts.

• In the US, industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.

• The average person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.

• We each see more advertisements in one year than a people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime.

• In the US, national happiness peaked sometime in the 1950s.

• Average house size has doubled since the 1970s.

• For every binfull of waste you put out, 70 binfulls of waste were made upstream to make the waste in that one bin.