• By the age of 6 months, the average Canadian has consumed the same amount of resources as the average person in the developing world consumes in a lifetime. (Recycling Council of Ontario)
• Across Canada, it costs more than $1.5 billion per year to dispose of garbage. (Destination Conservation)
• Presently, 80% of municipal and industrial solid waste in Canada is disposed of by landfilling processes, with the remainder disposed of through recycling, resource recovery and incineration. (Government of Canada)
• Landfills sites account for about 38% of Canada’s total methane emissions. (Environment Canada)
• More than 20,000,000 Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
• One-third of the water used in most homes is flushed down the toilet.
• A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
• 5 billion drink boxes are thrown away each year in North America
• North America has 8% of the world’s population, consumes 1/3 of the world’s resources and produces almost half of the world’s non-organic garbage.
• 70% of landfilled waste could be either reused or recycled
• 1 litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of ground water
• In North America, approximately 20% of our paper, plastic, glass and metal goods are currently made from recycled material. Experts believe that 50% could be easily achieved
• Recycling aluminum (the highest theoretical potential for saving energy) saves 95%.
• Recycling glass — energy savings of 33%
• Recycling paper — energy savings of 64%