Earth Day Math

It’s Earth Day and this April 22, we’re counting more than the number of years since 1970. We’re counting the numbers that matter.

So let’s start with some figures from Earth Day network.

• RECYCLING – 34.1 percent of “municipal solid waste” is recycled each year. Although we couldn’t find any data on the amount of recycling done in 1970, we’re betting that we’ve made improvements here.
• CONSTRUCTION – There are 16,500 “Energy Star” certified buildings in the United States. And as far as we know there was no such thing back-in-the-day.
• LIGHT BULBS – Who woulda’ thought? 80 percent of us have switched from regular light bulbs to the oddly-shaped compact fluorescents.
• PLASTIC BAGS – Wow. 70 percent of us now use reusable grocery bags instead of plastic or paper. (Make that 69 percent because I forgot my totes when I went grocery shopping this weekend.)
• SOLAR POWER – Not sure where these homes are but there are 1.2 million in the United States that use solar power.

Felling good, huh? We are all doing our part and it is making a difference.

Yep, asbestos, which was alive and well in 1970, is still happening today – even in the United States. Here are those numbers:

• 1060 metric tons of asbestos imported yearly to the U.S. from Brazil
  http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/asbestos/mcs-2013-asbes.pdf
• 3000 deaths per year in the U.S. (from mesothelioma)
• 43,351 deaths of Americans from mesothelioma and asbestosis from 1999 to 2013, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Enough said.