November 14, 2007

By the numbers
• Once: the number of times that most of the more than 25 billion cartons manufactured in the U.S. are used.

• 8 billion: gallons of gas saved if every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person.

• 55: percentage of water saved by producing recycled paper as compared to virgin paper. Recycled paper also takes 60- to 70 percent less energy to produce than paper from virgin pulp.

• Much of the world gets by on 2.5 gallons of water per day. The average American uses 400 gallons per day, 30 percent of which is for outdoor uses and half for watering lawns. (EPA)

• 3. 2 billion disposable razors end up in U.S. landfills each year.

• Unicef estimates that 11.3 billion dollars are required to provide basic levels of service for drinking and wastewater in Africa and Asia. Amount spent on bottled water in the First World: $35 billion.

• Making PET bottles for water uses up 1.5 million barrels of crude oil, enough to fuel 100,000 American cars for a year. Of the 2.7 tons of plastic used to bottle water, 86 percent become garbage or litter. (Earth Policy Institute)

• The average American throws away about 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per year.

• It takes almost 1/3 of a pound of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) to grow enough cotton for just one T-shirt.

• 10 percent of all agricultural chemicals and 25 percent of insecticides in the U.S. are used to grow cotton.

• One third of personal care products contain at least one chemical linked to cancer, according to the Skin Deep report by the Environmental Working Group, a partner of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

– Source: http://www.treehugger.com