Compared to other countries, Americans are trashy. We throw out more garbage and consume more resources that most other countries. Even folks in China–which has four times more people than the U.S.–are throwing less in the dumpster.
How do we compare with one of the world’s largest countries? We’re less of a friend to Mother Nature. Here’s why:
– Americans eat 269 pounds of meat per person per year, while the Chinese consume 104 pounds per person.
– The Chinese use 73 pounds of paper per person per year. Americans use 730 pounds.
– For every 1,000 people in the United States, 774 have cars. Only 16 people in every 1,000 have cars in China.
– Americans use four times more water than the Chinese. Water use per person per year is 116,000 gallons in China versus 484,500 in the U.S.
Source: National Geographic Magazine