Factoids
Garbage Facts
The U.S. throws away around 200 million tons of garbage each day. The Average American generates about 4 pounds of garbage each day. That is approximately 1,460 pounds per person per year. Paper takes up as much as 50% of landfill space! If line up bumper to bumper, a string of garbage trucks hauling the nations daily waste could reach halfway to the moon.
The Life of Litter-Decomposition Rate of Trash
Source: The New York Times
- Paper: 2.5 months
- Orange Peel: 6 months
- Milk Carton: 5 years
- Cigarette Butt: 10 to 12 years
- Plastic Bag: 10 to 20 years
- Disposable Diaper: 75 years
- Tin Can: 100 years
- Beer Can: 200 to 500 years
- Styrofoam: never
Paper Facts
- A fifteen year old tree produces only 700 grocery bags.
- The average person in North America uses 250 Kg (551 lb.) of paper each year. If they recycled it, each person would save about 4.6 average-sized trees.
- When 1 ton of newsprint is recycled, 3 cubic meters of landfill space is saved and 13-17 trees are spared!
- A stack of newspaper, collected for recycling and piled one meter high, saves a 10 meter tall evergreen tree.
Environmental Advantages of Recycling
Source: Garten Services Inc.
For every ton of paper recycled:
- 17 pulpwood trees are conserved.
- 500 pounds of air pollutants are not emitted.
- 12,000 gallons of processed water are conserved.
- Water pollution is reduced by 40%.
- Energy equivalent to 96 gallons of gasoline are conserved.
- Solid waste pollution is reduced.
- 5 cubic yards of landfill space is conserved.
- The amount of money to process the landfill space is conserved.
Cans and Bottles:
- The energy saved from recycling one aluminum can will run your TV for 3 hours.
- It takes 2 plastic soft drink bottles to make enough polyester fiber for a baseball cap.
- When you recycle one glass bottle, you save the amount of energy needed to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours.
- Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
- The plastic from 5 soda bottles can completely insulate a ski jacket.
- Recycling a glass jar saves enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours.
Facilities Services Links
Control Center (Work Requests)
Facility news
Get.Facilities, our new computerized maintenance management system for work orders.
Environmental Impact overview of the positive environmental effect we are having on the campus (PowerPoint).
Notes
There are many services we provide. View our Available Services list.
Find any building on campus using the Interactive Campus Map.
Do you have a work request? Visit the Facilities Services Control Center to submit a request for any Facilities Services department. Or, simply call 4-4060.
Read about URI's Storm Water Waste Management Program Plan (SWMPP) and the RI DEM Office of Water Resources Annual Report for URI.
