The average American produces about 4 1/2 pounds of garbage every day. That amounts to 230 million tons of trash every year, just in the United States.
The growing garbage problem, along with air and water pollution, are some of the reasons Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson almost 50 years ago. Nelson had seen a huge oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. in 1969 and decided to encourage students to channel their anti-war momentum into anti-pollution activities.
So Earth Day officially began on April 22, 1970. Nelson jump-started Earth Day by bringing in Harvard recruit Denis Hayes as national coordinator and conservation-minded Congressman Pete McCloskey as his own co-chair. Hayes hired a large staff to promote events around the country, chose April 22 as “national teach-in on the environment” and started a nationwide media campaign.
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