Soda pop.

sugar?

Yay me! I don't do that...in fact, my son offered to add US to his plan!

I'm with Phyllis on sugar.....but an alternative guess is butter.

Chips

Beer.

Ohhh, I was close!! I'm just glad the answer wasn't laundry.

How many adults over 30 still live at home? I can't imagine another scenario where parents would be doing the laundry.

Today, I think it is sugar.

Coffee?

coffee already guessed

sugar already guessed

dark chocolate

bananas

Bananas!

Texas_Gem, over 30 is shamefully old, but was was freaked out when I learned that students at some large, Midwest colleges still had their laundry shipped home in the 90's and 2000's, like they did in the 30's. But I know a lot of "adults" who are in grad school, or are junior lawyers or resident physicians or something--the 100 hour workweek--and go home once or twice a week for a decent meal and Mom's laundry. :) There are also some who are just partying hard, but usually those get kicked to the curb by the time they're employed and out of the house.

Aspirin -- lotta headaches going on! (Not tonight, honey!)

Sugar

Coffee/tea

One more guess....just because it popped in my head....and I apologize if you get grossed out....

Bugs.

consume is really throwing me. It's not eaten? ingested would be for bugs. But consume?

Chocolate.

42 tons really isn't a very large amount when you are talking about all of North America. I think there are 2000 lbs in a ton, so we're talking about 84,000 lbs. For me, that rules out sugar, chocolate, soda, etc. I think we consume way more of those things than 42 tons/day. But after that I'm stumped. I'm thinking something like pollen or dust? Honey? This one is tough.

North America encompasses somewhere around 20+ countries. That's a lot of people.

You're right, Rhizo, though sometimes, for demographic and cultural kinds of things, people only do Canada and USA, which is basically El Norte vs. Latin America, but it gets called "North America".

Jasdip? Do you know which it is?

If 42 tons is consumed daily in 23 countries by a total population of 528.7 million people (2008)... I'll say:

toilet paper.

Water