- The United States comprises about 5% of the world's population.
- However, Americans consume an far more than that share of the world's food,
- In honor of
America's thirst for resources seems unquenchable, and its ability to generate waste can be shocking.
In 2015, for example, 5% of the world's population lived in the United States, but the country consumed about 18% of the planet's energy, according to EIA data.
Meanwhile, Americans in 2010 had a 430-billion-pound bounty of food, yet wasted about 31% of it. That's roughly 141 trillion calories' worth of grub, according to USDA statistics.
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In honor of Earth Day on Sunday, April 22, Business Insider crunched these and other numbers to create a full picture of what the average American uses, wastes, and emits each year. Take a look: