A trash heap as tall as the Eiffel Tower

Environmental topics are of great importance to management accountants due to the profession’s focus on sustainability. But even an accountant can sometimes have a difficult time comprehending how the everyday actions of individuals — such as buying a plastic bottle of soda, for instance — can have such a big impact on the environment. So here’s an example to help illustrate the problem of plastic waste: Every two days, enough plastic bottles are sold around the world that if piled in one place would reach the height of the Eiffel Tower (324 metres or 1,063 feet). This interactive graphic helps visualise just how much waste is created from all those bottles.