Apartment Living: Where the Grass is Greener

Statistics from Go Green and Green Living 2011: some encouraging others motivating

• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
• Americans dump 16 tons of sewage into their waters–every minute of every day.
• Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.
• Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.
• Americans throw away about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times.
• Eighty-four percent of a typical household’s waste–including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles–can be recycled.
• The typical American home uses about 300 gallons of water a day.
• A 1/32? leak in a faucet can waste up to 6,000 gallons of water a month, or 72,000 gallons a year.
• America’s refrigerators use about 7 percent of the nation’s total electricity consumption–the output of about 25 large power plants.
• By turning the heat down, Americans could save more than 500,000 barrels of oil each day–that’s over 21,000,000 gallons.
• Americans have reduced toxic releases by more than 50 million tons since 1970. If that many tons were deposited in dump trucks, the trucks would stretch from Baltimore to Dallas (all the way around the world) if lined up bumper-to-bumper.
• Recycling and composting rates recovered 32.1 percent of MSW or 79 million tons. But this figure, you will recall, does not include hazardous, industrial, and construction waste. 32.1 percent is higher than before but still way too low.
• 50 percent of all paper products were recycled — or about 42 million tons.

Green Living really does start at home.

The choices we make in our homes really does make a significant difference.  When heating/cooling and other power uses are combined, homes account for the largest share of an average American’s carbon foot print – 32%!

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the choices you make at home are only a small part of the problem or that the changes you can make will have negligible impact.

Helpful Resources

• Learn how to reduce your home energy use from energyguide.com.
• Find information about purchasing carbon offset credits at carbonfund.org.
• Check out ratings for energy efficient appliances and other ways to reduce energy costs at greenerchoices.org.
• Read about green news, energy solutions, sustainable design and more at treehugger.com.
• Get tips about sustainable, eco and green living from greenlivingonline.com.
• Check out how budget living is also green and healthy at mnn.com.
• Find out where to get green, healthy and tasty produce near you at localharvest.org.
• Read quick green articles with tips for everyday life at thedailygreen.com.

I hope you find this information, these tips and resources helpful.  Living in an apartment could in and of itself lead to a greener lifestyle.  Once you’ve chosen which apartment to live in, there are still many choices you can make in how you live that contribute even more to living a greener lifestyle.

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