119 Heartbreaking Photos Of Pollution That Will Inspire You To Recycle

20 million Americans mobilized on April 22, 1970; 30 years later, that number was up to 200 million citizens of the Earth. What was the cause that brought these people together? The desire to make the Earth a better place.

Earth Day is not a holiday, but an annual event dedicated to demonstrating support for environmental action. Consider the math: in many Western countries, each person generates 4.3lb (1.95kg) of waste every day, up from 2.7 (1.2kg) in 1960. There are now 7.3 billion people in the world; with the current population growth rate of 1.1%, this means that in roughly 64 years, the Earth's population will be almost 15 billion.

That's a lot of garbage. Let's do our part, avoid the mistakes of the past, and keep our planet clean! If you have an image of pollution in our neighborhood, add a photo to this list - and then help clean it up!