We live in a consumer culture. To get a visual of it, check out photographer Chris Jordan’s art series “Running the Numbers” which depicts:

• 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags
  (the number used in the US every hour)
• 60,000 plastic bags
  (the number used in the US every five seconds)
• 106,000 aluminum cans
  (the number used in the US every thirty seconds)
• 15 million sheets of paper
  (equal to the amount of office paper used in the US every five minutes)
• 3.6 million tire valve caps
  (one for each new SUV sold in the US in 2004)
• 75,000 shipping containers
  (the number of containers processed through American ports every day)
• and more

[via Information Aesthetics]