RoRec Projects
We replaced 39,444 old household appliances within the ‘I reduce the carbon footprint with RoRec’ campaign and we reduced the carbon dioxide emissions by 75,563.5 tons
According to the US Energy Department, an American produces almost 20 tons of carbon dioxide every year. This quantity includes the values of pollution resulting from household activities, from transport, as well as resources used for the production of food and other goods.
We probably consume a bit less, because the world average is 4 tons of CO2 per inhabitant of the planet. According to the European Commission Regulation no. 443/2009, adopted on 23 April 2009, available on this site, new cars should produce on average 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre until 2012. At present, the maximum average is 170 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Let us take into account an average pollution rate of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre, the equivalent of a 1.6 litre petrol engine.
For every 1,000 kilometres, the car in our example will release into the atmosphere 130 kilograms of CO2. If we could put all this carbon dioxide in a bag, we wouldn’t be able to lift it an inch. And this is only one example – let’s think of how much coal, how much oil has to be burnt in order to produce all the energy used by all the equipments in our homes and offices: the more energy-intensive they are, the more fossil fuel has to be burnt, which only sends into the atmosphere hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2.
During the summer, The RoRec Association started the ‘I reduce the carbon footprint together with RoRec’ programme, in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. It is a public information and awareness-raising campaign, aiming to promote energy efficiency and to stimulate the collection of WEEE from private households.
The results are impressive, taking into account the fact that we achieved them in such a short time. Of course, we have to keep in mind that the CO2 emissions are calculated on the basis of the products’ lifespan.
If we think that we wouldn’t be able to lift a bag of 130 kilograms of CO2 from the ground, then how could we get rid of 75,563.5 metric tons?
Well, there are solutions, as you can see. We only have to apply them. Each of us!
Tags: energy efficiency , carbon emissions
