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More about this topic
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- What's Waste? |
- What's in our garbage? |
- Where does it come from? |
- How much do we produce?
Where does it come from?
The average pencil
can draw a line 56 kilometres long or write about 45,000 words! The United States alone uses 2.8 billion pencils a year.
Waste comes from ourselves and our homes, businesses and institutions like schools and hospitals. It comes from industrial factories, from construction and demolition sites.
Most of it we never see or think about. But waste is created in the process of making, packaging and transporting everything we buy, consume and eventually toss.
Wastes are created when raw materials are mined from the Earth; when energy is produced to turn those raw materials into products; when fuel is made to transport these products to us, the consumers; and ultimately, when we throw them away.
Pencil or Pen?
Are the production, use and disposal of a disposable pen more or less harmful to the environment? Research what's involved with making a pen and do a comparison with a pencil.
Some environmental impacts of the pencil production outlined above include deforestation and mining, material transportation, product transportation, energy use by factory machines and ovens, wastewater, and use of glue and paints.
Breadcrumbs were used as erasers until 1770, when the first rubber eraser was made. In 1858, erasers were attached to the ends of pencils for the first time.
