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Startling Environmental Statistics
It's difficult to imagine the impact on the environment of throwing millions of laser and inkjet cartridges into landfills each year. To illustrate the impact, we researched these startling environmental statistics.
- Two and a half ounces of oil are used for every inkjet cartridge produced.
- Three and a half quarts of oil are used for every laser cartridge produced.
- Half a gallon of oil is conserved for every laser cartridge returned. With the United States consuming approximately 700 million gallons of oil a day, we are helping to conserve a valuable non-renewable natural resource.
- Every year 400 million cartridges are thrown away. In terms of weight, that is equivalent to over 36,000 African elephants.
- Stacked end to end, cartridges thrown away in one year would cover a distance of over 24,000 miles - that's enough to circle Earth!
- In the next seven years, if all laser and inkjet cartridges saved from landfills were placed end to-end, a bridge could be built from Earth to the moon - a distance of 223,000 miles!
Why is the improper disposal of Cell phones so harmful to the environment?
- Cell phones contain toxic substances including Arsenic, Antimony, Beryllium, Cadmium, Copper, Lead, Nickel and Zinc.
- The cadmium from a single phone is capable of polluting 158,200 gallons of water or the equivalent of 1.2 million 16-ounce coffees
- These toxic substances either leach into soil and groundwater from landfills or form highly toxic dioxins & furans during incineration associated with certain types of cancer and a range of reproductive, neurological and developmental disorders especially in children
- Over 65 million cellular phones are already stockpiled in U.S. households creating 30,000 tons
of potentially hazardous waste. With the average American replacing his/her cell phones every
12 months the problem is only growing worse.
- By 2005, an estimated 130 million cellular phones will be discarded annually in the U.S. alone.
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