Apr 20, 2012
Earth Day Facts
The Choices Team
- Earth Day is the busiest day of the year for e-waste collection, yielding more than 3,500 tons of waste. Unfortunately, much of that waste is bound for Asia, where its disposition is unknown. http://blog.redemtech.com/2011/04/how-much-e-waste-does-earth-day-net.html
- The first Earth Day had sweeping political ramifications – in the subsequent mid-term elections, voters booted out several officials with poor environmental records, and Congress went on to make the 1970s the “Environmental Decade” by establishing the bulk of today’s environmental regulatory authority. http://www.nelsonearthday.net/earth-day/living-tradition.htm
- More than one billion people worldwide, many of them children, participate in or recognize Earth Day in some way, making it one of the largest civic observances in the world. http://www.earthday.org/node/68
- The keynote speaker for the first Earth Day rally (at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia) was Sen. Edmund Muskie, the “Man from Maine.” Also in attendance were poet Allen Ginsberg and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6grUk-IcLM
- The U.S. recycling rate in 1970 – prior to the first Earth Day – was a mere 6.6 percent for all recyclable materials. The rate today is nearly 35 percent. The U.S. recycling rate in 1970 was 6.6 percent, compared to a 34.1 percent national recovery rate. http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/index.htm
