Only 10 percent of the electricity used by an incandescent light bulb is turned into light. The other 90 percent is wasted as heat.
A heavy coat of dust on a light bulb can block up to half of the light.
Some energy-smart refrigerators use less electricity than an incandescent light bulb.
Across America, home refrigerators use the electrical equivalent of 25 large power plants every year.
Every year, more than $13 billion worth of energy leaks from houses through small holes and cracks. That’s more than $150 per family.
Recycled aluminum saves 95% energy vs. virgin aluminum. (Reynolds Metal Company)
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. (Reynolds Metal Company)
Recycling glass is 50% more efficient than producing virgin glass. (Center for Ecological Technology)
Recycling one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours. (EPA)
Recycled paper generates 95% less air pollution: each ton saves 60 lbs. of air pollution. (Center for Ecological Technology)
Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water. (EPA)
Every year, enough paper is thrown away to make a 12 foot wall from New York to California. (The Worldwatch Institute)
Recycling paper uses 80% less water, 65% less energy, and produces 95% less air pollution than virgin paper production. (The Worldwatch Institute)
Global paper use has grown more than six-fold since 1950. One fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper. (The Worldwatch Institute)
It takes 2 to 3.5 tons of trees to make one ton of paper. Pulp and paper is the 5th largest industrial consumer of energy in the world, using as much power to produce a ton of product as the iron and steel industry. (The Worldwatch Institute)
In some countries including the United States, paper accounts for nearly 40 percent of all municipal solid waste. Making paper uses more water per ton than any other product in the world. (The Worldwatch Institute)
Points to ponder
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”
-Marshall McLuhan, 1964
“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.”
-PLATO, The Republic
“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.”
-Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”
-Richard P. Feynman
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
-Chief Seattle, 1855
“U.S. consumers and industry dispose of enough aluminum to rebuild the commercial air fleet every three months; enough iron and steel to continuously supply all automakers; enough glass to fill New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.”
-Environmental Defense Fund advertisement, Christian Science Monitor, 1990
“Living in the midst of abundance we have the greatest difficulty in seeing that the supply of natural wealth is limited and that the constant increase of population is destined to reduce the American standard of living unless we deal more sanely with our resources.”
-W.H. Carothers
"If it weren't for electricity, we'd all be watching television by candlelight."
— George Gobel