Sustainability Fun Facts

The road to a more sustainable lifestyle starts with education, and there’s always more we can learn about new technology, new science and new green discoveries!

Whether you’re a decade into a zero-waste lifestyle or are just starting out, there’s so much information out there that it can feel like an information overload. Sometimes, all we need are some bite-sized chunks of knowledge. 

Here are some fun facts about sustainability that will get you thinking about everything from energy to water usage to recycling to environmental justice and more!

Fun facts about sustainability

Recycling

• One ton of paper that gets recycled rather than sent to the waste stream can save up to 20 barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, 17 trees and 4,200 kWh of electricity!
• A recycled aluminum can has a quick turnaround! It can show up back on a shelf in a brand-new product in just 2 months. 
• Because it’s so easy to melt and re-shape, glass can be recycled practically infinitely! Over 90% of the glass bottles we use today have been recycled from previous glass items.
• A piece of recycled cardboard can actually make more cardboard! The cardboard that’s used to make cereal boxes, for example, can be used to make even more if newspaper is added to the recycling mix. Magic!
• Paper made from scratch produces 25% more emissions than recycled paper does. 
• Who recycles the best? Germany does! It has the highest recycling rate in the world.
• Recycling newspapers could save around 250 million trees annually! 
• Over 20 million Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped in aluminum foil each day, and all that wrapping can cover an area of 133 square miles! Those wrappers are recyclable, so put your Kisses to good use!
• Recycling a glass bottle (rather than making it from scratch) saves enough energy to power a computer for half an hour! 

Water 

• Using water-efficient fixtures, faucets and fittings can reduce a home’s water usage by nearly 45%.
• A water-efficient washing machine saves more water in a single year than one person will drink in their whole life!
• Water conservation is vital to our survival! Although 70% of the globe is covered in water, only 2.5% of it is fresh water, and of that 2.5% only 1% of it is accessible! That’s just 0.007% of the entire planet’s water supply!
• Over a quarter of bottled water is actually just filled by municipal tap water (which you already pay for with your taxes). Skip the single-use bottle and use a reusable one instead, since you’ll probably get the same quality of water anyway. 
• A water faucet dripping one drop per second can fill up 165 gallons a month! 
• An average family of four in the United States uses up about 26 gallons of water a week.
• Around 25% of the planet’s freshwater supply is used to grow food that ends up being food waste. 

Energy

• Replacing all the light bulbs in the world with energy-efficient ones could save around $127 billion each year! To put that into perspective, it’s estimated that it would take around $330 billion to end world hunger. Solving one problem could lead to solving another one!
• Over 70% of all carbon emissions related to energy usage comes from just 33 countries (there are 195 countries in the world). These countries are, in no particular order, the European Union (E.U.), the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Canada and India. 
• Using the cold setting while washing your clothes in the washing machine can save 90% of the energy used on the hot setting! Most of the energy is used to heat the water, so cold wash is the way to go!
• A heavy layer of dust on a light bulb can block up to half of the light emitted! Add more light without buying more lamps by dusting them more often!
• Fluorescent bulbs use 75% less energy than a regular bub does! 
• A poorly-fitted window can increase your energy bill! If there is a gap of even just 1/16 of an inch around the window, it lets in as much air as leaving the window open three inches! A window that fits well will keep the cold air out and your heating bill low.
• Work smarter, not harder! Some of these new fancy smart refrigerators, such as ENERGY STAR appliances, can use less energy than a light bulb!
• Speaking of fridges, keeping a fridge closed for longer and opening the door fewer times can actually reduce your electric bill! Almost 30% of the cold air inside a refrigerator escapes every time you open the door, and the longer you keep it open, the more cold air escapes. It takes a lot of energy to get the temperature back to what it was, so it’s important to think about how long we’re keeping those fridge doors open while perusing for a midnight snack.

Environmental activism

• Norway is one of the world’s largest benefactors and advocates for protecting tropical rainforests!
• Although representing just 5% of the world’s population, indigenous peoples protect over 80% of the globe’s biodiversity!
• Vegetarian diets can reduce agricultural emissions by as much as 63%, and vegan diets can reduce them by 70%!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/TeeFarm