Daily Archives: April 10, 2022

Holy Cow that’s a lot of water

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For this blog I decided to pick a cow as my live stock of focus because my home in Western Massachusetts resides in an area where dairy farms are incredibly prominent. When thinking about livestock such as cows and cattle, one may often think about how much they can provide for us but not often do we think about what farmers need to provide for them, ie, water. A healthy, non milking cow drinks somewhere between 9-12 gallons a day, while a healthy lactating cow drinks roughly triple that in 30-40 gallons a day. Holy cow that is a lot of water. The average human with access to clean water drinks about 3.7 liters a day which is about just under one gallon.

When thinking about water waste, my mind tends to travel to some very simple yet day to day things. Such as long showers or leaving the water running while brushing your teeth but something that strikes me is what I found in regards to food waste. Water is needed to produce basically everything that we eat and drink, therefore if we waste less as humanity, we save more water by having to produce less. In the United Kingdom, roughly 7 million tonnes of food and drink are thrown away each year with nearly 3.5 million tonnes of that still being edible. That is almost 50% less production that would need to occur saving billions of gallons of water.

The main reason that bottled water is so popular is due to its convenience. You can take it wherever you go and it is sold often in large packages. People also tend to have a discomfort with tap water being good to drink more-so than they do with bottled water. If you say there are 2,000 students at Union College, I would estimate that there is somewhere around 250 water bottles used each day. I imagine roughly 12.5% of the community drinks and recycles  (hopefully) at least one bottle a day. This is based off of nearly 20% of Americans using a plastic bottle each day and Union students are far more environmentally cautious than the average American.

 

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sustainable-living/13-best-ways-save-water

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2017/07/the-worlds-population-consumes-1-million-plastic-bottles-every-minute/

 

 

Choosing the right Pathwave.

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When thinking of livestock, is water the first thing that pops into your head?  I know for me it isn’t.  I think of cows, chicken, and sheep providing milk, meat, and fleece to provide for a sustainable life.  However, when it comes to livestock, the amount of water consumptions cows intake may be harming the environment more than we think.  Now when looking at the water footprint when it comes to beef, producing a kilogram of beef uses around 15,415 liters around alone.  When looking at the statistics, 92% of the world’s global footprint goes towards agriculture.  Why does this matter you may ask? If agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s fresh water, which is 3 times as much as it was 50 years ago.  This is not including the amount of water we use on the daily for other activities such as showering, washing clothes, and doing the dishes.  With the life expectancy of a cow being used before slaughter, a cow would typically drink 24,000 liters of water within their life.  When comparing these numbers its very hard to think of a solution for usage of less water.  Another factor that harms water usage, is the way farmers fertilize their crops with pesticides, contaminating the ground water with nitrogen and phosphorus, that will eventually hurt plant and animal life within the sea.

When it comes to bottled water, students at Union College should definitely think about buying a reusable water bottle rather than buying bottled water at the bookstore everyday.  I specifically think the carbon footprint is extremely high when thinking about FIJI water.  The distance from Fiji to Schenectady New York is around 12,780 km, and yet it’s still a popular drink that many Union students continue to get.  Reusable water bottles also typically hold more water, with an average of 32 oz to a plastic water bottles 16 oz, so not only are you helping the environment, but you’re saving money as well.  This is very important since out of 50 billion plastic water bottles bought by Americans each year, only 23% are being recycled.  I think Union is doing a good job in already placing many filters around campus to encourage the usage of reusable water bottles, but I feel that Union should definitely stop marketing Fiji water in particular even if it “supposedly” tastes better.  If you haven’t already, this is your sign to buy a reusable water bottle!  It will save your pockets (and the environment) in the long run.

 

resources:

https://case.edu/sustainability/news/making-switch-reusable-bottles

https://eu.boell.org/en/2021/09/07/water-thirsty-animals-thirsty-crops

 

Water waste and solutions

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Water waste is a hugely important issue that is often overlooked. In many places, certainly more wealthy countries like the US, water is commonly taken for granted. For example, a leaky faucet may seem like no big deal, however in the long run it can be extremely wasteful. “One faucet leaking one drip per minute adds up to 34 gallons of water per year” (Washington Post). This is just for one leaky faucet; imagine how many gallons of water would be wasted with multiple leaky faucets across the United States and even in the world. Household leaks, including toilets and irrigation systems, can waste about 900 billion gallons of water annually which is a significant statistic. On average, each United States citizen wastes about 10 gallons of water a day due to leaks, most often without realizing it.

Some solutions to prevent this kind of water waste would be to make sure there is a proper irrigation system in place. If a system is installed correctly and managed properly, water waste can be reduced by 15%, or 7,600 gallons of water a year. This would make a major difference. However, there are some socioeconomic issues that come into play with the ability to reduce water waste. Some individuals that are less wealthy may not be able to afford proper irrigation system installment and certainly may not be able to keep up with management of the system if installed. There are things that can still be done regardless of socioeconomic status, such as taking shorter showers, only running full loads of laundry or dishes, and by turning off the faucet all the way after use. Also, all individuals are capable of looking for leaks in their pipes and even in their toilets to be aware if there is a problem and then take the necessary steps to reduce the leak or to fully fix it.

 

Works Cited

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

8 Ways to Reduce Your Water Waste

Water Usage and Utilization

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Water is a necessity for us humans along with planet Earth. Humans can go much longer without food as they can without water. It is interesting to think that a lot of the food that we consume could not possibly be produced without water. For example, think of crops that need water into order to grow. Or, all of the water that livestock drinks that we eventually consume such as pigs. This idea alone shows how important water is in its comparison to food consumption.

Consider the following, “There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed” (epa.gov). Furthermore, “Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs” (epa.gov). This idea is really hard for me to wrap my head around. I think about how much water I myself personally use on the daily. Then, I think about how many humans are on this Earth and how much water is used for humanity’s needs by the whole planet. This alone proves how much water is on this Earth. I find this fact so interesting seeing how human production as well as global warming has affected our water usage. In my opinion, bottled water is so popular because of the convenience of it. Consider, reusable water bottles have to be constantly washed and sometimes they are a bit pricey. Bottled water is convenient as once you finish the water, you can just throw away or recycle the bottle. If I had to estimate the bottle water consumption on Union College’s campus, I would estimate that around 50% of Union’s students drink bottled water opposed to water from the tap. Furthermore, I would average that of the 50% of bottled water drinkers, they drink at least 2 bottles of water a day. Based on Union College’s enrollment being around 2,300 students, 65% of that is 1150, multiplying that by 2, my estimate is that Union College consumes around 2,300 bottles of water per day.

 

Work Cited: https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html

Bottled Water

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This week’s theme of water had me thinking about bottled water and the growing popularity of reusable water bottles within my generation. It got me thinking about the waste produced by bottled waters–how much CO2 would it take to produce enough bottles of water for each student on campus to get their necessary daily intake of water?

The average human needs to drink 3.7L of water per day, and each plastic water bottle is around 1L of water. There are 2,050 students at Union, and if everyone drank the recommended amount of water per day, that would total 7,585L of water, and 7,585 plastic water bottles. According to Luqel, to produce 500ml of a single use plastic water bottle it takes 82.9g of CO2. How much CO2 would be produced to create 7, 585L of plastic water bottles, then?

Well, 500ml is equivalent to .5L. .5L produces 82.9g of CO2. .5L doubled is 1L, and 82.9g doubled is 165.8g of CO2. To produce one 1L plastic water bottle, it takes 165.8g of CO2. For all of the 2,050 students of Union to drink 3.7L of water per day, it would take 1,257,593g of CO2(7585 x 165.8).

That is just for one day of water. For a year of water? It would take 459,021,445g of CO2.

This is just something to think about when considering reusable vs. one use plastic water bottles. Not to mention the microplastics!

Why you should use a renewable water bottle

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Single-use plastic water bottles have gotten more and more popular since the mid-90s. Currently “around 380 million metric tons of plastic are being produced yearly” which is “ roughly the same as the entire weight of humanity.”  The “average person uses 156 plastic bottles per year” which is around 13 bottles a month. When looking at Union College has a population (staff and students) of around 2,500. To see how much plastic Union College uses in a year, I multiplied the amount an average person uses in a year subtract by a month to make up the loss of students in the summer to the school’s population, which gave me 357,500 plastic water bottles a year. This is an issue because 90% of plastic water bottles do not get recycled and a lot of the time they end up in landfills or oceans for up to 450 lifespans. An average water bottle has a greenhouse gas emission of 58.22 g of CO2. If we compare that to the number of water bottles used at Union college yearly that’s 20,813,630 grams of CO2. In addition, “plastic water bottles are petroleum-based. In the U.S alone, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to meet the demands” and globally we use around “17 million barrels of oil to make plastic water bottles every year”. In the end, we should limit the amount of single-use plastic, it has a large impact on the environment, so get yourself a reusable bottle knowing that you are reducing your carbon footprint.

Work Cited:

http://www.watercooler-dispenser.com/articles/How-Much-Oil-Is-Used-For-Bottled-Water.html

https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Bottled_Water_Waste_Facts

https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/

 

Sheep Consumption of Water in the United States

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Sheep are are a staple of farms across the country not only for their relationship with humans as a food source, but also as a source of wool. Sheep are able to obtain most of their water needs from their food/forage consumption. However, they still are consuming water at a constant rate that is worth examining.Lambs weighing 5-10lbs consume roughly 0.1-0.3 gallons of water per head per day. Feeder lambs weighing in the range of 60-110lbs consume roughly 1 gallon to 1.5 gallons per head per day. Pregnant ewes weighing 175lbs and higher consume between 1-2gallons of water per head per day. Lactating ewes weighing 175lbs and higher consume between 2-3 gallons per head per day. Lastly, rams weighing 175lbs and higher consume between 1-2 gallons per head per day. Dirty or stale water on farms and livestock acreage can lead to a reduced consumption of water by sheep. Clean water is so important for the health of the livestock and the health of its meat for human consumption.

Obviously dirty or contaminated water is not ideal for animal drinking, but we can not expect every farm in the country to provide flawless and pristine water to its animals in a similar way that we cannot expect all cities to provide perfect drinking water to its inhabitants. Requirements for livestock water consumption is linked to size, productivity, diet and environmental conditions. Good water quality can lead to an increase of water intake while reduced water consumption can lead to dehydration- a problem which can be fatal to sheep and other livestock. Dirty water is a hotbed for diseases and bacteria and can spread rapidly if sheep drink from the same source.

Waterers can be disinfected using a dilute bleach solution following cleaning. A dilute bleach solution of 2 to 3 ounces for each 50 gallons of tank capacity of bleach containing 5.25% sodium hypochlorite applied weekly also will suppress algae growth. This disinfection is crucial to maintaining healthy drinking water supplies for sheep and other livestock.It is important to note that proper installation of the waterer or tank base will prevent fecal contamination of water. The base should be wide enough so animals are able to place their front legs on it easily while drinking, but not their hind legs. This will keep animals from defecating in the water which would lead to illnesses among sheep and other livestock. There are estimated to be 5.2 million sheep in the United States.

If we were to assume that it is an even 50/50 split between rams and ewes on farms, we can calculate a range of sheep water consumption in the United States per year. Male sheep, rams, can be estimated to be between 2,600,000 and 5,200,000 gallons of water annually. Ewe water consumption can be estimated to be between 2,600,000 gallons and 7,800,000 gallons.

Works Cited:
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/publications/livestock/livestock-water-requirements
https://www.statista.com/statistics/194403/total-number-of-sheep-and-lambs-in-the-us-since-2001/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sheep.asp

Can the use of water be problematic?

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Almonds are rich in valuable nutrients for your body. It provides the body with magnesium, vitamin E, dietary fibers, calcium and phosphorus. A single serving of almonds makes for a nutritious and filling snack yet is extremely water reliant. One singular almond takes 1.1 gallons of water(Guertin, 1)Nonetheless, water serves no caloric or organic nutrients yet it plays an essential purpose in life.  A common human activity that causes a large quantity of water waste is showers. Having a limit on the time taken in the shower, controlling water pressure and how quickly the water shoots out the showerhead are suggestions to not overuse water. 

Bottled water is so popular because it is considered more “pure”, convenient, and it is relatively cheap. The cons to bottled water and climate change are the plastic use and how it is literally a liter. Nonetheless, bottled water takes 450 years to decompose. I would estimate that the water bottle consumption at the Union College campus is about 2000 bottles per day because there is a range of 2000 students.

citation:

Water Waste and How to Combat it

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When people consider waste in regards to sustainability, they often consider physical garbage far before they consider water waste.  Water waste, however, is a major sustainability issue as, even though it doesn’t take the water out of the water cycle, but instead removes the water from being accessible and usable by humans.  It is also wasteful since it overly expends the energy used to deliver the water, such as in the overuse of the dishwasher or washing machine.   On the whole, water waste could lead to humans having less usable water readily available and can also take such water away from the environment.  As per the DOH, the average person wastes 30 gallons of water every day; some of this waste is due to human tasks, such as overly long showers and leaving faucets on while they are not being used.  Other reasons for water waste include issues such as unrepaired household leaks.  According to the EPA, the average household can waste 180 gallons of water a week from household leaks alone, which is 9,200 gallons of water wasted every year.  While this waste is very common, there are many methods that people can implement in their day to day life to combat this issue.  First and foremost would be to check their households for the aforementioned leaks and have them repaired to prevent any further issue.  Other simple tasks include turning off the tap when brushing teeth, which would save 8 gallons of water a day, and therefore 2,290 gallons of water a year.  One last common occurrence that would save water in the average household is running the dishwasher only when completely full; this alone would save 320 gallons of water per household per year.  Water waste is a common, overlooked issue, but by changing the way we implement some household tasks, we can save many gallons of water from being wasted every year.

 

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts

https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/09/23/does-wasting-household-water-remove-it-from-the-water-cycle/#:~:text=Rather%2C%20wasting%20water%20hurts%20humans,away%20from%20the%20natural%20ecosystem.

Goats, Sprinklers, Union College

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  • One example of livestock that uses water: Goats consume: 3 gallons/ 1 day x 365 days/1 year x .0038 tonnes/ 1 gallon= 4.161 tonnes/ year per goat
  • If a typical gardener uses a sprinkler gushing 12,240 gallons/ 1 monthly x .0038 tonnes/ 1 gallon x 1 year / 12 months= the Gardner will use 3.876 tonnes / year 
  • Water waste could be reduced by doing laundry more infrequently (each load requires about 12.5-19.6 gallons per load depending on the washer and according to prudentreviews.com), adding timers to sprinkler systems (where according to bigsprinkler.com it takes 27,000 gallons to irrigate 1 acre of land) and especially by eating less beef which according to denverwater.org requires 1,847 gallons of water to produce.
  • Bottled water is a matter of convenience and one of appealing marketing. Our susceptibility to innovative marketing techniques makes us prone to consuming water-on-the-go. To estimate the student consumption of bottled water, assuming no student is using the hydration stations and only acquiring water from bottled water the following “ideal” situation may arise:
  • There are 2050 students at Union, 47% women, 53% men
  • 3.7 L/day per man x 1 gallon/3.785 L x 365 days/year = 356.80317 gallons per year per man
  • 1086 men at Union
  • Approx. 387,488.243 gallons per year per Union men
  • 2.7 L/day per woman x 1 gallon/3.785 L x 365 days/year = 260.369881 gallons per year per woman
  • 964 women at Union
  • Approx. 250,996.565 gallons per year per Union women ideally
  • It takes one liter of oil to prod. one bottle of water, 

Take the Distance: 7,933 mi xWeight: 2916.247 tons x 161.8g of Co2/1 ton x 1 mi = 3743176249.57 g of Co2 it takes to ship in a 747 Boeing, with 2 passengers at roughly 197 lbs, with roughly 650,000 gallons of water to hydrate Union College.

Other works not already cited:

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92222327