An average family of four, in a lifetime, will use more than 4,200,000 pounds of construction material, 144,000 pounds of paper, 184,000 pounds of wood, 128,000 pounds of metal, 256,000 pounds of organic chemicals and will throw away 448,000 pounds of household waste.

WASTE PREVENTION ...

Reduces overall consumption of the world's resources. The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but uses 1/3 of the world's timber and paper (seven times our share) and 25% of the world's energy. Twenty-five percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions originate in the United States.

Reduces pollution. Four primary industries, paper, plastics, chemicals and metals, produce 71% of toxic emissions. Reducing consumption reduces pollution from these industries. One study shows that the environmental cost of landfilling paper is equivalent to $300 a ton.

Reduces the amount of material landfilled. As a nation, we currently spend $43.5 billion annually to landfill 156 million tons of municipal waste. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Seventy-one times as much industrial waste gets buried every year, 11 billion tons a year!

Reduces greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to global warming and climate change. Landfills are a huge source of greenhouse gases. The Environmental Protection agency has determined that waste prevention could account for 5% of the targeted reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. If we cut the use of office paper, newspaper and corrugated paper by 25%, that would be the equivalent of taking 12 million polluting cars off the road.

	Slows waste generation. Our per capita generation of waste is steadily increasing (from approximately 2.5 pounds per person per day in 1970 to 5 pounds per person per day in 2002) and the gains made by recycling are slowing down. As a nation, our recycling rate increased by only 2% between 1996 and today (from 26% to 28%).
	Allows us to preserve resources, particularly non-renewable resources, for future use.
	Saves businesses money by cutting packaging waste and reducing usage of paper and other products.
	Saves money for consumers. A family of four can save $2,000 a year by buying the same quantity of items in larger sized packages!