Quick Facts & Stats
Quick Facts & Stats about Lawns & Gardens
In the US, watering a home's lawn can consume up to 80,000 to 100,000 gallons of water each year (applying 1 inch of water for every 1,000 sq ft requires about 600 gallons)
For many municipalities, storm water flows into the sewer system, overloading the treatment plants; however due to recent federal rules, these cities will be required to divert storm water from the sewage treatment plants which will be an expensive undertaking, resulting in sewer rate increases of as much as 20 – 100% per year over a period of one to several years
Each year, over 23 billion pounds of yard waste ends up in landfills, which not only adds to cost of disposal, but also closes the landfill faster, and produces mostly unrecovered methane gas over time
Vegetable and other food wastes contribute over 96 billion pounds to our country’s landfills each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Excess use of chemical fertilizers often leach into our communities’ lakes, rivers, and sewer systems, resulting in harmful algae growth and potentially hazardous contamination of our water supply
About 31% of U.S. households or an estimated 31 million households participated in food gardening in 2008, and is expected to increase by 19% to 43 million households in 2009
As of 2008, there were over 10,000 community vegetable gardens across the U.S., and an estimated 5 million households are very interested in having a community garden located near their home
