Remember the logic word puzzle from middle school: “Which is heavier, a ton of feathers, or a ton of lead?” Some of us answered with the obvious response: they are of the same mass. Others of us got stuck on the materials under reference. For those of you who relate to the latter, I’m here to tell you it’s ok, and there is help.

Many factoids that we hear throughout the day are hard to process and comprehend. These numbers are originally relative to the individual. Yet when multiplied by the masses, they result in dramatically long numbers that are supposed to represent our collective actions on a daily basis. We commonly hear them on the radio, on TV, and in conversation, are we really expected to have the capacity to visualize 6+ digit numbers in our head on the fly?

Photographer Chris Jordan is working hard to help us comprehend these numerical conundrums. “Running the Numbers” is his new photographic series presented to rescue us more visually-oriented folks. These “digitally stitched” images effectively depict these number problems based on our collective consumption. Since our individual experiences are incomparable to these numbers-of-the-masses, it is hard to create a mental picture of massive amounts. For example, 426,000 cell phones are disposed of in the US every day. When the majority of us dispose of one every one to two years, it becomes difficult to understand the collective numerical value. Well, if you agree with me and really love to visually understand what these numbers look like, then Chris has already decided to help you.

In this image are 426,000 cell phones, the number disposed of every year by US residents.

This image is made of 106,000 aluminum cans, the number of cans used in the US every 30 seconds.

This is what 60,000 plastic bags looks like, the number used in the US every 5 seconds.

Now grab this last image, drag it to your desktop 30 times, and open up each one next to another. This is equal to the number of plastic bags we consume in the US every minute! (For you number people, that is 1,800,000.) With this image, it is easier to imagine what this amount looks like taking up space in our designated drop spots (aka landfills), and how they might be affecting our congested ecosystem.

“If we can more deeply feel the meaning behind numbers like these,” says Jordan, “maybe that will enable us to make more conscious choices about the behaviors that lead to them.”

Chris Jordan: Photographic Arts