The Chicago Green Office Company Green Facts

• Making a ton of paper from recycled stock saves up to 17 trees and uses 50% less water than making paper from virgin fiber.
• The U.S. uses nearly $1 million worth of energy every minute.
• Air pollution from cars, factories and power plants is a major cause of asthma attacks. More than half of the U.S. population lives in areas with poor air conditions, and studies suggest that air pollution contributes to the development of asthma in previously healthy people.
• The average American generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day, which is almost twice the amount of trash the average American produced daily in 1960.
• Automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and buses in the U.S. drove over 2.8 trillion miles in 2002 -- comparable to driving to the sun and back 13,440 times.
• Across the U.S., 12 million acres of lakes, estuaries and wetlands and 473,000 miles of streams, rivers and coasts are contaminated by mercury, which comes mainly from coal-fired power plants.
• The National Recycling Coalition reports that recycling supports 1.1 million jobs in the U.S.
• Over the past 40 years, the total commercial and residential waste produced in the U.S. has nearly tripled.
• Power plants emit 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide pollution, the primary cause of global warming.
• Only 10% of the energy used by an incandescent bulb produces light; the rest is given off as heat.
• Half of the forests that originally covered 48% of the Earth's land surface are gone. Only 1/5th of the Earth's original forests remain pristine and undisturbed.
• Since 1980, the earth has experienced 19 of its 20 hottest years on record, with 2005 and 1998 tied for the hottest and 2002 and 2003 coming in second and third.
• The polar ice cap is now melting at the alarming rate of 9% per decade. Arctic ice thickness has almost halved since the 1960s.
• Though Americans make up just 4% of the world's population, we produce 25% of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- more than China, India and Japan combined, and by far the largest share of any country.
• 55% of our trash goes to landfills, 14% is burned, and 31% is recycled.
• Paper products are bleached to make them whiter and brighter. The chlorine used in many bleaching processes contributes to the formation of harmful chemicals that wind up in our air and water and are highly toxic to people and fish.
• By 2025, the world must increase its water supply by 22 percent in order to meet its needs. Meanwhile, 40 percent of the drinking water supplied to homes is flushed down the toilet.
• Daily building operation (lighting, electricity, heating, and cooling of homes, offices, and schools) accounts for more than one-third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
• Americans spend an average of 90% of their time indoors, where indoor air is often 2 to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air.
• If every American replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), the energy saved could light more than 2.5 million homes for a year.
• Thirty-six states are anticipating water shortages by 2016. Yet the average American uses more than 100 gallons or water each day.
• Almost 40% of America's waste is paper and could be recycled, meaning fewer trees cut down.
• Recycling saves energy: Creating a new aluminum can from scratch takes 95% more energy than making a can from recycled aluminum.