less trash
When we conserve resources, we also cut down on the trash we produce. Americans throw out 340 million tons of trash each year. We throw out 2.5 million plastic bottles aloneevery hour! Most of what we throw out ends up in landfills Figure below . In a landfill, all those plastic bottles take hundreds of years to break down. What are the problems caused by producing so much trash? Natural resources must be used to produce the materials. Land must be given over to dump the materials. If the materials are toxic, they may cause pollution.