One of the most effective ways to reach people is through demonstration and proof of ideas. This section has gathered facts to help make another case for why it is important for us to be thinking about resource use and waste prevention. All facts mentioned here are sited. Have fun with these facts and use them for posters or to impress your friends and when people want to know, you can say: THAT'S A FACT!

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVANTAGES OF RECYCLING According to Weyerhaeuser's Environmental Savings, recycling one ton of paper saves: 17 trees 6953 gallons of water 462.57 gallons of oil 586.5 pounds of air pollution 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space 4077.45 KWhr of energy

"The Life of Litter. Decomposition Rate for Trash"
Nemve E. Metropolitan Diary, New York Times. October 1, 2001
Paper -- 2.5 months
Orange Peel --- 6 months
Milk Carton -- 5 years
Cigarette Butt -- 10-12 years
Plastic bag -- 10-20 years
Disposable diaper -- 75 years
Tin can -- 100 years
Beer can -- 200-500 years
Styrofoam -- Never (immortal)

The Eugene Weekly - Insatiable
* The average American planned to spend $800 on Christmas gifts in 1997 - almost three times what the average Vietnamese citizen earns in a year of labor.
* 96 percent of 8 to 12 year olds included a big screen TV in their holiday wish list for 1997. Nearly three-fourths of parents say they would like to reduce their children's TV watching.
* It takes an average of six months for a credit-card user to pay off holiday bills.
* The total U.S. Credit card debt is more than $450 billion and is growing at a rate twice that of wage increases. The number of personal bankruptcies has quadrupled in the last 15 years.
* Americans produce five million extra tons of trash each year between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.
* Compared to the 1950's, Americans are twice as rich, but less happy. The average American's buying power has doubled since the 1950s but in national surveys the number saying they were "very happy" declined from 35 to 30 percent.
* The U.S. has 6 percent of the world's population but consumes a third of the world's resources and produces a third of the world's toxic waste. U.S. per capita consumption has nearly doubled in the last two decades.
*Eighty-four percent of Americans would prefer a less materialistic holiday, but Christmas retail sales increased seven percent last year.
* Teenagers see 360,000 advertisements by the time they graduate from high school. There are more shopping centers in the U.S. than high schools.
* Two-thirds of Americans say they would be happier if they had more time to spend with family and friends. Only 15 percent say they'd be happier if they had nicer possessions.
* Nearly a third of Americans say they have voluntarily traded income for improvements in quality of life.
* Half of Americans would rather have more free time, even if it means less money.
* Americans now work about one month longer a year on average than they did two decades ago.
* Each day, the average American city-dweller consumes 150 gallons of water, 3.3 pounds of food and 15 pounds of fossil fuels and produces 120 gallons of sewage, 3.4 pounds of garbage and 1.3 pounds of pollutants.
*82 percent of Americans agree that we buy and consume more than we need.
* 93 percent of American teenage girls say shopping is their favorite pastime.

Sources:
Chicago Tribune, The Economist, E Magazine, Adbusters, Center for a New American Dream, New Roadmap, Merck Family Fund, U.S. News and World Report, Zero Population Growth, The Overworked American.

This breakdown has been circulating for ~10 years.  According to snopes.com, this is an urban legend.  Here is the list and the weblink disputing this.  You decide...
www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.htm