There are several resources which are wasted in the USA. The United States residents are equipped with enough resources but most of them go to waste due to lack of proper skills on how to handle them or just the culture of people where others are not more concerned about the resources because to them they appear to be plenty. Common resources required for daily living include water, food, gas, electricity among other resources. There are several research projects which have been carried out to show how resources have been lost.
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Water Wastage
According to Columbia, water shortage is experienced in 36 states in the USA. About 1.7 trillion gallons of water go to waste each year according to the research which was carried out by the U.S Geological Survey.
Natural Gas Wastage
Americans use gas in many different applications. It is used in homes for cooking among other areas. An absolutely massive amount of natural gas is wasted each year according to Vox. As much as 40% according to their research by residential housing. A lot of this gas goes to waste due to use of gas burners which are not efficient and many other factors such as leaky gas pipes can as well lead to loss of the fuel.
Electricity Wastage In The USA
The US Department of energy has put an estimate of electricity consumption in the USA at 100 quadrillions. The energy wasted is estimated at 1.7%. The electricity energy ends up in waste due to different reasons.
Food Wastage
According to the Atlantic, Americans waste a lot of food. Actually according to them an unfathomable amount of food (More on this in a minute). There is a belief that food is plentiful in America and the eaters are very picky if something is wilted or doesn’t look “perfect” we have a tendency to throw it away. Poor food processing and storage methods also lead to food spoilage at different stages of production also lead to waste.
Why it is so necessary to conserve resources there are 2 reasons.
You Save Money
First and foremost. (as should be obvious at this point) wasting resources will lead directly to losing money. In the Atlantic article above it estimated that each family in US throws out an average of approximately $1,600 of food each year. Wasting gas and electricity leads to higher bills that you might not “feel” but add up really fast.
For electricity, the average American household wastes 284 KWh. Which equals a loss of about $34 a month or $407 a year. The average house uses 168 metric feet of natural gas. With an average cost per home of around $20, assuming about 40% waste you get about $8 a month or $100 a year you could be saving. All these little things add up to the loss of about $2,500 or so each year. Times that by 40 years, that is $100,000 over your working life (Or a small house in some places). Putting just that money in a safe index fund that gets just 6% interest that can mean around $420,000 over 40 years.
This is just one of many areas where we as Americans waste money, here are the top 10 ways.
Helps In Keeping The Environment Clean For Future Generations
Now we can’t be all selfish. When resources go to waste, we end up polluting the environment more. Our misuse of electricity will lead to burning more fossil fuel so that the energy can be generated. The process leads to the production of more greenhouse gases which contribute more to pollution of the environment. This, in turn, contributes to climate change, so if even for selfish reasons we save natural resources we all come out ahead, including our kids, their kids and their kids (and on and on it goes)!
What To Do About It
As with everything knowledge is power. Now that you know there is a problem you can start doing things to stop it.
A few resources to get started with are, this water conservation guide or some simple tips on saving electricity. If you are one of the half of homes in the USA that use natural gas you can go to the natural gas saving guide here. Saving money on food is one of the main ways we lose money, so be sure and go to this food saving guide. Some bonus ways to save money are you can look to save on cleaning supplies or your car’s fuel. Add it all up and you could fuel your retirement this way, so don’t give up.
This all by being socially conscious at the same time, what a good deal.
If you are interested in even more lifestyle-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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