33 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!

#1 Tortoise Trapped By Plastic

#2 Koala Lost Her Home

#3 Turtle Trapped In Plastic Waste Couldn't Grow

#4 Bird In Oil Spill

#5 Albatross Killed By Excessive Plastic Ingestion In Midway Islands (North Pacific)

#6 Suffering Seal Not Safe In Its Own Habitat

#7 Stork Trapped In Plastic

#8 Oiled Penguins

#9 He Spends Each Morning Looking For Recyclable Plastic That He Can Sell For 35 Cents Per Kilo To Help His Family

#10 Surfing On A Wave Full Of Trash In Java (Indonesia), The World’s Most Populated Island

#11 Fake Hong Kong Skyline For Tourists

#12 Seal's Nose Trapped In Plastic Waste

#13 Bird In Oil Spill

#14 Boy Swimming In Polluted Water In India

#15 Child Drinks Water From Stream In Fuyuan County, Yunnan Province

#16 Girl Walks Through Smog In Beijing, Where Small-Particle Pollution Is 40 Times Over International Safety Standard

#17 Ken River Oil Field, California (USA) – Exploited Since 1899

#18 Worker Cleans Away Dead Fish At A Lake In Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province

#19 Mexico City Landscape, 20 Million Inhabitants

#20 Child Swims In A Polluted Reservoir, Pingba

#21 Landscape Full Of Trash In Bangladesh

#22 Man Cleans Up Oil Spill In Dalian Port, Liaoning

#23 Residents Look At A Heavily Polluted River, Zhugao, Sichuan Province

#24 Landfill In Accra (Ghana). Our Electronic Rubbish Usually Ends Up In Third-world Countries

#25 Terrible Pollution In India's Rivers

#26 Plastic Sandals Found On Beaches In Raja Ampat

#27 A Family Walks On A Garbage-strewn Beach In Mumbai

#28 A River In The Suburbs Of Mumbai.

#29 Plastic Kochin, India

#30 Open Dumping In The Streets Of New Delhi, India

#31 Taken At A Tourist Spot In India - 2011

#32 Indonesian Forest Transformed Into Palm Plantation

#33 Part Of The Amazonian Jungle In Brazil, Burnt Down To Be “Repurposed”