By Lisa Pomerantz

Posted: 07.31.09 | Tagged: carbon, eco-footprint, savings

What is an Eco-Footprint? It sounds a bit like Big Foot, but an eco-footprint really is a measure of how lightly - or un-lightly - we tread on the planet. We all make a series of negative and positive impacts on the planet day to day, and throughout our lives. These actions don't equal each other out one-for-one - it's an ongoing give and take that can actually be measured.

Eco-footprints are determined through the amount of greenhouse gases produced, in units of carbon dioxide. You might not think of the things you do day to day as producing carbon, but you'd be surprised. Read more.

Interesting Facts:

• The average American generates 4.5 lbs of garbage per day.

• The average American family generates approximately 2.5 tons of garbage a year.

• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.

• Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill.

The RecycleBank Eco-Footprint
Let's see it shrink. One of the goals of RecycleBank is to see our collective footprint shrink - both as a company and through our community of members.

To do this, we've created a formula and graphic snapshot based on our recycling averages nationally. This is our place to track and celebrate what we've done together to help the planet and divert from the landfill.

Trees
The trees represent the number of trees that are saved by recycling. Every 17 trees means 1 ton (1 ton = 2,000 pounds) of paper have been recycled.

Oil
The oil droplets show the amount of fossil fuel (oil) that has been saved by recycling plastic, aluminum and glass. So for approximately every 3 pounds of plastic, aluminum and glass that are recycled, one gallon of oil is saved.

When you sign up and start recycling with our rewards program, we keep track of your progress too. When you log in, you'll see your personal footprint based on your portion of the total average. We hope you'll be inspired to recycle even more when you see how you're contributing to the overall picture.

Sources: epa.gov;
Environmental Protection Agency, Municipal Solid Waste in the United States:
2005 Facts and Figures