Save Water, Save Money

The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water and sewer bill. By making just a few simple changes to use water more efficiently, you could save about $170 per year. If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! Also, when we use water more efficiently, we reduce the need for costly water supply infrastructure investments and new wastewater treatment facilities.

Americans throw away enough paper in a year to build a wall 12 feet high from New York City to Los Angeles. This fact is from earth911.org, a public service Website that focuses on recycling issues. Now that’s a lot of paper!

Despite the hype that computer makers fed us a few years ago, the computer has NOT decreased the paper used in most offices today. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Clean Your Files Day Program, the average citizen uses 1 ½ pounds of paper per day. The average office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Now that’s just the figures on paper. What about the ink cartridges and cell phones that are tossed into landfills each year. No matter how you slice it, recycling today is big business.