Daily Archives: April 11, 2022

How Much Water Do We Waste Daily?

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Only about 0.3% of Earth’s water is safe/accessible to drink, and still we waste so much of it with simple, everyday tasks (NGWA). Turning the faucet off when brushing your teeth has become common practice among the general population, but what else could be wasting water? In his article, Adam Hadhazy seeks out the least wasteful option when it comes to household chores. For example, he writes that hand-washing dishes (while it may seem like the more sustainable choice) can use anywhere between 20 – 40 gallons of water, while most dishwashers only use about 10 gallons per load. He also explains that going to a professional car wash wastes less water than washing it yourself, with car wash garages using up to 45 gallons of water per car and doing it yourself using between 80 and 140 gallons (more than triple going to a garage) (Hadhazy). Additionally, car wash garages are more sustainable and environmentally friendly, as they recycle water and are under a U.S. mandate to direct wastewater to treatment plants to avoid polluting nearby water sources. Spreading more knowledge about how much water we actually use in our day to day lives could make such a difference in when it comes to changing the general populations’ attitude regarding climate change. When you understand just how much water you’re wasting while washing the dishes or doing laundry, the problem becomes real and more relevant.

 

Hadhazy, A. 2008. Top 10 Water Wasters: From Washing Dishes to Watering the Desert. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-water-wasters/

 

Mullen, K. 2021. Information on Earth’s Water. National Groundwater Association. https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/About-groundwater/information-on-earths-water

Water Waste in Agriculture

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The agriculture industry utilizes the largest portion of the water supply within that supply water is lost between poor irrigation, contamination, and poor management. Farmers and large agricultural plants have to establish water efficiency levels in order to reduce waste. Reduce, but not eliminate. Farms make up about 70% of all the water consumed globally and within that 70%, 30% is actually used and the other 40% is lost in waste. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the agriculutre industry (surplus) the usage of fertilizers, pesticides, and other pest replent techniques that are used on crops water becomes highly contaminated. This water can’t be reused without treatment and that is costly. The untreated waste water is then transported elsewhere but can still impose a threat to said environment. On the brighter side of things there are many ways in which farmers in the agriculture industry can reduce waste water. Such as efficient irrigation, capturing and storing water, crop rotations, and composting mulch.

got milk?

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In the past few years, non-dairy milk products have seen a rise in popularity and sales. This move away from dairy milk was at first attributed to diet concerns and a trend in cutting out dairy, but lately the current climate conditions have been factoring in to the general populations milk-buying decisions. Non-dairy milks range from pea milk to walnut milk to soy milk, and they’ve been marketed as healthy alternatives to cow milk. Another draw to non-dairy milks has been concern for animal welfare, which could also explain the rise in veganism/vegetarianism (Gustin). However, concern for the changing climate has started to creep its way to the top of people’s list for choosing alternative milk products. Since non-dairy milks make up 10% of the milk market, competition runs high, and many alternative milk companies are funding research to find out exactly how big each alternative milks’ carbon footprint is. One study found that a liter of pea milk results in 387g of carbon dioxide, a liter of almond milk results in 396g of carbon dioxide, a liter of soy milk results in 397g of carbon dioxide, and a liter of cow milk results in 1,467g of carbon dioxide (Gustin). With these numbers, it’s easy to market non-dairy milks as the more sustainable choice. Representatives of non-dairy milk companies make the argument that even nut milks which require a lot of water and other resources to produce are more sustainable than cow milk, therefore competition within the non-dairy market should cease, and companies should instead work together to help as much as they can to affect climate change.

 

Gustin, G. 2018. Cows vs. Nuts: Who Gets to be Called Milk, and Are They Climate Friendly? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012018/almond-soy-milk-non-dairy-climate-change-impact/

Water is Life

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Water. Water is an essential part of human life on Earth. We as humans are made of water, use water everyday, and need water to survive. It helps regulate all of our functioning parts of our complex bodies and ensures benefits of living a healthy life. Just as humans are extremely dependent on water, so are many other species such as the group of livestock. One animal in particular is cows, which are heavily connected to greenhouse gasses and Co2 emissions. Depending on the temperature that a cow is living in, the weight of the cow, and whether it is producing milk or not, correlates to the amount of water it needs daily. It has been estimated that for cows, “Daily water intake may vary from 3 to 30 gallons per day depending on age, body size (weight), stage of production, and the environment (mainly air temperature).” With an increase in temperature or lactating cows, this requires more clean water for them. But to put the stat of 3 to 30 gallons in perspective, every human is advised to drink 8 cups of water per day, which is half a gallon of water. So although cows are much larger than humans, their daily water intake is extremely large and crucial for them.

Water is an essential to everyday life but there is a ton of water being wasted annually in the United States. An article published by the Washington Post states, “The incredibly stupid way that Americans waste 1 trillion gallons of water each year.” 1 Trillion gallons of water is another worldly large number and the ways depicted that Americans waste water are water leakage, hoses, and irrigation systems: all are not needed waste methods of water. One way to prevent the wasting of water would be to be more aware of how you are potentially wasting water. This can be from fixing leaks immediately, shutting off your sprinkler system when not needed, and using less water related activities such as dishwashing and laundry. If there was to be less water wasted, the number conducted through the Washington Post of 1 trillion gallons, could be minimized by millions and millions. Not to mention saving water waste, but this can save thousands of dollars spent by homes and businesses.

One method of intaking water that is very popular is through bottled water. It is so popular because it is pre bottled, convenient, and can be disposed of. Although it is not economically and environmentally friendly, Americans live a fast paced life and want the fastest way to intake water. To put water bottle usage in perspective on Union College’s campus, let’s first say there are 2,200 undergraduate students. I’d say about half of the students here use plastic water bottles daily, so 1,100. If every student is drinking about 3 bottles a day, that’s 3,300 approximately, plastic water bottles. To calculate the amount of oil used to produce and ship the water to Union, I estimated around 15,000 gallons of fuel to get the water from Western states all the way to Union College.

 

References:

https://beef.unl.edu/amountwatercowsdrink

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/