![Brighter Planet [logo]](/images/logo.png?1265081718 "Brighter Planet"){kind=logo}
How big is a ton of CO2?
The average American emits a ton of CO2e every two weeks.
A ton (2000 pounds) of CO2 is enough to fill:
- 130,000 gallon milk jugs
- An entire 2,200 square-foot house
It’s emitted by:
- Driving an average car about 2,000 miles
- Heating, lighting, and powering the average home for a month
- Sending 350 bags of trash to rot in a landfill
- Running an average coal power plant for 9 seconds
It’s saved by:
- Taking sixty cars off the road for a day
- Swapping 3 incandescent light bulbs for CFLs
- Growing 40 tropical trees for a year
You may also be interested in ...
- How big is a ton of CO2?
- How do I calculate my family's footprint?
- How do you calculate emissions from events?
- How is my carbon footprint calculated?
- Is it 'global warming' or 'climate change'?
- What are consumables emissions?
- What are government emissions?
- What are shelter emissions?
- What are transportation emissions?
- What can I do about my footprint?
- What if I live outside the US?
- What is "Shrink & Save"?
- What is a carbon footprint?
- What is CO2e?
- What is the average footprint?
- What makes this carbon calculator different?
- Where do emissions come from?
- Where does the data come from?
- Why do you project my footprint?
← return to our knowledge base index
From our blog
The tuna sandwich is a social faux pas. Sustainable eating includes seafood, too!
February 05
Recently we’ve been talking a lot about a topic within sustainability that’s a language we can all relate to– food! We released our Sustainable Cooking Guide, which is chock-full of energy conservation tips, stories and recipes for everyone who loves eating and wants to keep their impact under control. For all the data-lovers [...]. Read more
Elsewhere