Numbers: Jun. 25, 2007

RECYCLING

1,643 Pounds of trash generated per person in the U.S. in 2005, the most recent year for which data are available. Some 32% of this waste was recycled, a rate that has doubled in the past 15 years

$236 billion Estimated annual revenue of the U.S. recycling industry

AFRICA AID $60 billion At the recent G-8 summit, amount that leaders pledged to deliver to Africa to fight AIDS, malaria and TB

5% Percentage of the aid package that is "new money," as $30 billion had already been announced by the U.S. government and most of the remainder would come from existing aid earmarks

EVEREST

514 Number of climbers who have scaled Mount Everest so far in 2007, the most in any year since it was first conquered in 1953. Many conservationists argue that such a large human presence could destroy Everest's ecological balance

$1.57 million Estimated boost that the Everest industry provides to Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries

CHINA

$850,000 Amount in bribes the former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration was accused of accepting to approve hundreds of drugs. He was sentenced to death in late May

60 Estimated number of hospitals and pharmacies in northeastern China that have been using fake blood proteins in patients' drips

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; National Recycling Coalition; BBC; Oxfam; BBC; Xinhua News Agency; BBC (2)