Fun Facts

The average Texan throws away about 6 and a half pounds of trash each day.

In 2013, Americans recycled or composted about 1/3 of their waste. Imagine if there were 39 million fewer cars on the road, that's how much energy we saved by recycling and composting.

One ton of paper manufactured from recycled paper saves up to 17 trees and uses 50 percent less water.

It almost always takes less energy to make a product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials. One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a computer for three hours or a TV for two hours.

Small amounts of waste can have a big impact. The oil from one oil change can contaminate up to one million gallons of drinking water— a year’s supply for 50 people.

Water is a finite resource — even though about 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water, less than one percent is available for human use.

With a new water-efficient showerhead, a seven-minute shower uses less water than a full bath.

A faucet leaking at a rate of one drop per second can waste up to 3,000 gallons of water per year. That’s the amount of water needed to take more than 180 showers!

Most glass food and beverage containers are 100 percent recyclable and can be reused over and over again. If not recycled, a glass bottle takes one million years to break down in a landfill.

Scientists estimate that Texas could meet half of its needs for electricity by not wasting energy and by using renewable sources such as wind and sun. Not only are renewable sources better for the environment, they are free!

A person in the United States uses twice as much energy as someone in Japan or Germany. The U.S. has only 5 percent of the world’s population, but uses about 25 percent of the world’s energy.

Plastic beverage bottles can be recycled into other usable items such as fleece, sleeping bags, and backpacks. It is estimated that 1,200 plastic soda bottles could be recycled into carpeting for an average-sized living room.