When I saw these images of various consumer products that are vizualized in their various quantities I was struck with how much waste we have in this country.
426,000 cel phones are retired every day.
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/11rtn.php
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/12rtn.php
11,000 jet trails are produced in this country every 8 hours
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/02rtn.php
106,000 aluminum cans are used in the US every 30 SECONDS!
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/05rtn.php
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/06rtn.php
60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every 5 SECONDS
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/09rtn.php
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/galleries/running_the_numbers/10rtn.php
If I ever needed a boost to make sure I recycle, this display certainly brought it to the forefront of my mind. We do a pretty good job of recycling at our house but I think we are going to try to do better. I’d like to do my part to keep some of this stuff from our landfills. It’s not like we have unlimited space there. Remind me to post about when I was a kid and we had houses around us that could explode at any minute due to the methane gas that was seeping in to homes from the landfill a mile away. People were having to evacuate and live in hotels just in case their house exploded. I guess those memories give me added incentive to do my part to recycle as much as I can.
Where did he get these photos? Looks like he already made a trip to the landfill. There is only that much stuff because it matches the number of people using the products. True we can hold onto our cell phones longer but with getting free ones every 2 years, who would? I’m sure our rotary phones work just fine. Got one? We all go food shopping each week. How many of us bring our own bags? If we do large shopping, how many bags would we have to bring? Who put the soda in the cans (which BTW are easily recycled)? Who is at fault here? Man or corporation? I choose the latter.
If overconsumption is to be reduced, next they’ll be proposing less people being born or living.