Trash Trivia (Revised 9Feb99 at 20:26) Did you know: How long your trash lasts in landfills? - Telephone books - 50 years; Cigarette butts - 3 years; Aluminum cans - 90 years; Glass bottles - 1,000,000 years; Tin cans - 45 years; Plastic Bottles - forever; Plastic six-pack holders - 100 years; Plastic bags - 15 years; Office papers - 5-7 years; The United States comprises of only 7 percent of the Earth’s population, yet uses nearly 50 percent of the Earth’s industrial raw material. The average American throws away 600 times his/her adult weight in garbage in a lifetime. Thirty-five percent of household waste is composed of compostable kitchen and yard waste. Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild the entire American commercial airfleet. Americans throw out enough iron and steel to supply all the nation’s automakers on a continuous basis. Every day Americans buy about 62 million newspapers, and throw out around 44 million of them. That means the equivalents of about 500,000 trees are dumped into landfills every day. Americans use 50 million tons of paper each year, consuming over 850 million trees. Recycling half of the paper used throughout the world today would free 20 million acres of forestland from paper production. If all the bottles and jars that are thrown away every day were lined up side by side, they would stretch from one coast of America to the other. Making glass from recycled glass can save 32 percent of the energy needed to make glass "from scratch". Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to light a 100 - watt light bulb for 4 hours. Americans throw away enough motor oil every year to fill 120 supertankers. Used oil is the largest source of oil pollution (over 40 %) in our nation s waterways. Most is dumped by do-it-yourselfers. Dumping of used oil in storm drains and on the ground pollutes watersheds and underground water supplies. There is no tin to mine in the United States. The only place to get tin in this country is from recycling. There is only 35 year’s worth of tin ore left in the world. In the United States, we discard almost 30 billion bottles and jars every year which could be recycled. Within just a few years half of all the garbage disposal sites in the United States will be filled. While styrofoam is completely non-biodegradable, each year in America, there are enough styrofoam cups produced to circle the earth 436 times. If you saved and recycled all of your junk mail for 1 year, you would save 1 1/2 trees. If every American did the same, 100 million trees would be saved. HI's Home Page   Introduction   Project Update   Executive Summary   Contacting HI Project Overview   Technical Overview   Press Releases   Newsletters   Other Web Sites Hawkins Industries, Inc. & HI Disposal Systems, LLC = HI Companies Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1724, Indianapolis, IN 46206-1724 USA Voice: 317-693-1265 or 800-995-1265 - Fax: 317-262-1265 or 800-973-1265 (e-mail: info@hicompanies.com - web site: www.hicompanies.com) Copyrighted © 1997 1998 1999 2000 by Hawkins Industries, Inc., - All rights reserved TERMS & CONDITIONS - The material contained on "www.hawkinsindustries.com or www.hidisposalsystems.com" may not be re-published, re-broadcast, re-written or re-distributed without prior written permission from Hawkins Industries, Inc.