Calculate NYC's SUDs Consumption Based On Your Own
How much do the actions of any one of these people matter? [Photo Credit: Tiago Fiorez]
What does one single use disposable matter? Every day, billions of people buy, sell, and use trillions (or even gazillions) of consumer items. How can any one person’s disposable usage actually matter? How can one plastic milk jug or paper towel ever really matter?
New York City's Department of Sanitation has been together a neato tool to show you why it matters. You plug in your consumption habits, and it spits out what the total number would be if everyone in your borough or the whole city went through single use disposables like you do.
To take an example, let’s say you live alone and go through one single use plastic milk jug every week. No big deal, right? Well if everyone on the island of Manhattan used as much as you do, the whole city would go through 3,349 tons of plastic milk jugs every year (or about 6.7 million pounds of plastic).
Or take paper towels. Let’s say you use, I don’t know, call it 35 a week (that’s a conservative estimate of 5 per day). And if all of Brooklyn used paper towels to the same extreme that you do, the borough would burn through 47,673 tons of paper every year.
And I don’t even want to tell you how many tons of paper the whole of New York City would go through. But I will anyway. It’s 154,860 tons of paper every month, or 309 million pounds of paper every year.
These are some big numbers. The environmental implications are obvious, so we won't harp on them. But what's even more pressing is the economic implication of the waste, especially in the most expensive city in the country. The impact calculator tracks paper towels, trash bags, razors, light bulbs, newspapers, motor oil, and plastic milk and water jugs, plus a few more items. And each of the items I've listed are things that we pay for. We pay to throw them away. In a time of economic crisis, we spend millions of dollars on items that we throw away. And if that's not a reason to kick the SUDs habit, I don't know what is.
Go ahead and plug in your habits. And share your numbers in the comment section.
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 01:29PM
Reader Comments (5)
Just discovered your site. I don't live in NY, but your calculator is awesome.
Like your pictures. and you guys are funny.
If everyone in NY used 2 trash bags a week (like I do) , guess that calculates to
7,856 tons of trash bags in New York City
I get your point, one person can make a difference.
Looks like Bag It the movie will be shown on PBS stations nationwide-
according to their website. FYI
Bag It is airing on National Public Television. Please click here to check with your local public television affiliate for air dates and showtimes.
Hi there!
Anonymous: So glad you found Throwaway Nation! And even gladder that you like the pictures and think we're funny. :) If you don't mind my asking, how did you find out about us?
And thanks for plugging your own trash bag usage into the calculator--it's not always easy to acknowledge your own consumption, but it's important to do so. It helps us all to understand how we can make a difference.
Interested Person: Thanks for the update on Bag It on PBS Stations nationwide!
For interested readers, Bag It is a film about the problems with single use disposable plastic bags (like the kind you get at the grocery store. or the pharmacy. or anywhere, for that matter.) We've written about the film twice:
Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?
How to Ban the Plastic Bag
Thank you both so much for your comments and please let us know if you have any additional questions or feedback!
ThrowAwayNation- Curious how I found you ....
I was just googling around and stumbled on your site, can't really say what "exactly"lwhat ed me to it ;)
Thought you'd appreciate knowing you HAVE READERS out here! Just helping out.
Correction to above post
"can't really say what "exactly" led me to it " ..........