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RSS FeedMatters of Scale - Visible vs. Invisible Waste
Tons of trash collected by more than 100,000 volunteers in the United States last year | 1,665 |
Tons of hazardous waste produced by U.S. industries, much of it dispersed
by uncontrolled disposal into the environment, last year | 200,000,000 |
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Of the 7,235,000,000 tons of gold ore mined in the United States last year,
the amount that ended up as gold | 0.00033 percent |
The amount that ended up as waste, much of it toxic | 99.99976 percent |
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Of the 1,077,000 tons of lead ore mined in the Unites States last year,
the amount that ended up as lead | 2.5 percent |
The amount that ended up as waste, much of it toxic | 97.5 percent |
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Typical weight of a beef steak served at a good restaurant | 0.3 kilograms |
Amount of animal (livestock) feces and urine produced, much of it ending up
in fresh water supplies, for each serving of meat of that weight | 16 kilograms |
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Sources: Trash pickup: Center for Marine Conservation; Hazardous waste: Global
Waste Survey (London: International
Maritime Organization, 1995); Mining waste: State of the World 1999 (Washington,
DC: Worldwatch Institute, 1999);
Livestock waste: U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa), Senate Agriculture Hearings
on Animal Waste, 1998.
