Facts about energy usage:

 

The average home contributes more air pollution than does the average car!

Every time you open the refrigerator door, up to one-third of the cold air can escape.

Use cold water in the washing machine. Hot water won’t get the clothes any cleaner, and it wastes a lot of energy.

Switching from ten 100-watt bulbs to ten 40-watt bulbs saves 600 watt hours. That savings is for every hour the lights are on. Saving 0.6 kWh from changing 10 light bulbs x 8 hours/day x 365 days/yr = 1752 kWh.

Microwave ovens use around 50 percent less energy than conventional ovens do.

Appliances like televisions and toasters draw a small current even when they're switched off. So it's a good idea to unplug them if you are not going to be using them for a few days. The Department of Energy tells us that about 20% of the energy you use at home powers electrical appliances like televisions, VCRs, stereos, coffee makers, toasters and microwave ovens - even when they're not turned on.

 

 

Recycling Facts:

 

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.

A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes.

To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.

Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!

If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!

The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.

Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.

Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!

The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!