- Cigarette waste is the most abundant form of litter in Arkansas and on the planet.
- Collected cigarette litter weighs in the millions of pounds annually.
- Cigarette filters are not biodegradable; they are made of plastic, not paper and cotton.
- Cigarette litter lingers in our environment up to 25 years.
- Cigarette butts are lightweight and can easily move through our storm drains into our waterways and water supplies.
- Water will leach the toxins from cigarette litter, making it deadly to most aquatic life. In fact, the toxins released from one cigarette butt left in a gallon of water for one day will kill about 80 percent of aquatic life added to that water.
Source: Clean Virginia Waterways
- Plastic foam from items like cups does not break down naturally.
- Annually, Americans produce enough plastic foam cups to circle the earth more than 400 times.
- Plastic foam can stay in the environment for up to 500 years.
Source: Valley Vista Services
- One of every five items of litter is food-related.
- 10 percent of all litter is food wrappers.
- Most fast-food litter is found in close proximity to a fast-food restaurant.
- People who eat fast food in their vehicles are twice as likely to litter.
Source: Don’t Mess With Texas
- For every ton of paper that is recycled, 17 trees are saved.
- In this decade, Americans will throw away almost 5 million tons of office paper and nearly 10 tons of newspaper.
- Each person in the United States uses about 675 pounds of paper a year.
- 40 percent of all waste is paper.
- Arkansans use more than 18 million pounds of paper a year.
- 6 percent of all waste is glass.
- Glass bottles can stay in our environment up to 1,000 years.
- In this decade, Americans will throw away more than 11 million tons of glass bottles and jars.
- There are as many as 800 glass bottles along each mile of rural road in Arkansas.
- Plastic pieces usually include plastic caps and lids, plastic straws and plastic bottles. In fact, 10 percent of all waste is plastic.
- More than 80 percent of Americans reuse plastic products and packaging in their homes.
- It takes 36 two-liter bottles to produce one square yard of carpet.
- Plastic bottles can stay in our environment indefinitely.
- Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.
- Aluminum cans can stay in our environment up to 500 years.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt light bulb burning for almost 20 hours or power a television for three hours.
- 20 cans can be made from recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new can.
- In this decade, Americans will throw away more than one million tons of aluminum cans and foil.
- Enough aluminum is thrown away every three months to rebuild every commercial airplane in America.
Sources: The Rosemary Garden and www.recycleit.com