1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste is the amount Americans generate per year.
70 percent of heavy metals come from e-waste, including 40 percent of all lead.
20 percent is the 2005 national recycling rate for glass. Glass is 100 percent recyclable.
1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste is the amount Americans generate per year.
Americans disgard 4 million tons of office paper a year: enough to build a paper wall 12 feet high from New York to California
We save enough energy recycling ONE aluminum can to run a TV set for 3 hours.
It takes an entire forest, 500,000 trees, to supply Americans with their Sunday newspaper
Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every year
You can save 10% of your heating and cooling costs by tighting up & insulating your air ducts.
40% of the energy you use in your home is for heat.
We save 17 trees for every ton of recycled newspaper.
Most bottles and jars contain as much as 25% recycled glass...
Most Americans make more garbage in one day than the average person in all other countries makes in a week...
It's best to water plantings and grass either early in the morning or in the evening. That way, the water doesn't evaporate quickly under the sun's heat.
Baby Bottles - Is there a problem with the plastic?
Could we be inadvertently poisoning ourselves while trying to do the green thing? Since a parent-run national Web site raised the alarm this summer, many parents have started replacing plastic baby bottles and youth sports water bottles to make sure they are free of the compound bisphenol A, or BPA.
The recent release of two conflicting reports on BPA has brought the issue to the headlines. Dozens of studies over the years have shown that the chemical, in use since the 1930s, can damage the reproductive systems of rats, mice and other laboratory animals.
Another panel of about a dozen scientists concluded that while BPA presents “some concern” for developing reproductive systems in fetuses, babies and children, the overall health risk is “negligible.”
Parents particularly worry about hard plastic baby bottles, making glass baby bottles sought-after items. “Lots of moms are talking about it,” said Christine Kern Steffen of Madison, Wis., who teaches yoga to pregnant women and mothers of newborns. “That one is definitely a hot issue.”
One mother considering a switch to glass bottles is Kari Oberloh, whose son, Nolan, 8 months, had to switch from breast milk to formula when he was 3 months old. She also gave up her own plastic water bottle in favor of a stainless steel container and is thinking hard about plastics in general.
Industry reps say it’s all political. “Environmental groups have been drumming up interest,” says Steven G. Hentges, executive director of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group, American Chemistry Council.
Hentges says BPA has been recognized as safe for use by numerous government bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.K. Food Standards Agency, the European Food Safety Authority, and the Japanese Ministry for Health, Labor and Welfare as well as other regulatory agencies around the world.
Nevertheless, mother of two Robin Nathan says she believes plastic containers, especially when heated for baby formula or other purposes, could leach chemicals into food or drink. “We already place a high priority on what we put into our bodies,” Nathan says. “Is it worth it? Who knows? We err on that side.”
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