Conserving Natural Resources Through Habitual Management Ice? Just Say No.

I generally don’t ask for ice in my drinks.  In Oregon, drinks are fairly cold to start with and adding ice does not make them any more palatable for the mouth or for the body.  Recently, flying back home from a trip, I dozed off when the flight attendant came around to serve drinks.   Later on when I got up, I asked the attendant for orange juice. I forgot to mention “No ice, please” as I was still recovering from my power nap.  She brought me the juice in a 9-once cup 99% filled with ice cubes with orange juice in the empty airspaces.   I finished the juice in a few sips and handed the cup still filled with ice back to the attendant who I am sure threw it into the garbage—thus wasted. 

Ever since that day, I have been curious to find out more about ice -- its production, its consumption, and its wastage in the United States.   How does this translate into energy and water wastage?  How much energy and water could be saved if we adjust our habits and avoid asking for ice, if we don’t need it. 

Googling through the Internet, I found an article “Ice? Just Say "No" by Peter Russell who echoed similar thoughts.  Peter is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, of The World Business Academy and of The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest.   He maintains a very inspiring website with numerous articles on a variety of topics.   This article uses some of his assumptions supplemented with some additional information and background calculations.

We Americans take ice for granted. We expect it in a glass of water at every restaurant. We want it in every soft drink. Most of us produce a continual supply of it at home in our refrigerators. And for parties we go and buy bags of it to fill up our buckets and bathtubs. In addition to the ice we melt in our drinks and ice buckets, there is all the ice that is produced, only to melt away, unused, in the drain.  But at what cost? 

Ice is the frozen form of water that is produced by extracting latent heat from the water.  This process requires energy.  Estimating how much ice we consume or waste each day is not easy. However, let us calculate how much energy and clean water we could save by reducing or eliminating this waste using the following assumptions and scientific facts:

1. US population = 300 million
2. On an average around a pint of ice is produced for each of us, and 50% of it gets wasted
3. 1 Pint = 473 milliliter (cubic centimeters)
4. 1 Gallon = 3.785 liters
5. Density of water = 1 gram / cc (1 cubic centimeter of water = 1 gram)
6. Water consumed in ice production = 0.473*300 = 141.9 million liters / day 
   = 37.50 million gallons / day
7. Latent heat of fusion of water = 334 joules/gram
8. 1 joule = 0.000277778 Watt hour  = 1 Watt sec
9. 1 k Watt hour = 1000 Watt hours
10.  Energy from coal = 2,460 kWh / ton (http://science.howstuffworks.com/question481.htm)
11.  Energy from a barrel of oil = 1.7 MWh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_of_oil_equivalent )

Thus,

Energy consumed through ice use or misuse (473*334)
= 157982 joules/day/person
= 0.044 k Watt hours (kWh)

National energy consumption through ice use or misuse (.044*300 million)
= 13.2 million kWh  

To produce this amount of energy (13.2 million kWh), we will need approximately 5366 tons of coal, or 7765 barrels of oil.  If we adjust our habits and eliminate the ice waste (even 50% of the total production), this will translate into a net saving of approximately 4000 barrel of oil (equivalent of 2600 tons of coal) and 18.73 million gallons of clean water.  With the current oil price of about $110.00 / barrel, it translates into a net saving of over $440,000 per day or $160 million per year.  In addition, we must factor in the cost of the equipment used to produce the ice, plus the damaging effect on the ozone layer of all the CFCs released into the atmosphere when our ice-making machines fall apart on the scrap heap. 

The water savings (18.73 million gallon / day) from ice wastage can meet the demand of the entire population of some countries such as Haiti with the population of 9 million and average per capita consumption of less than 2 gallons of water per day (http://www.aag.org/hdgc/www/intro/units/unit1/worksheets/wksheet1-3.PDF)

Besides the economic benefits, this habit change will also help in reducing CO2 emission, thus reducing global warming.  It is estimated that each kilowatt of energy generated using coal or petroleum products produces about 2.0 lb of carbon dioxide (http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/co2_report/co2report.html.)  Our daily ice consumption thus releases an additional 13,200 (13.2 million*2.0/2000) tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each day, making its own contribution to the greenhouse effect.

Does ice-cold water or drinks have any health benefits?  Not really.  Rather just the opposite.  The temperature stress due to ice on our teeth can crack the enamel, increasing the likelihood of tooth decay. The lining of the stomach is weakened by having to cope with the temperatures for which it was not designed. The cooling in the stomach unnecessarily draws blood from other regions of the body. It also solidifies the oily stuff in food you have just consumed, which increases the amount of fat absorbed the intestine.  In addition, ice-making machines can harbor Legionnaire's Disease and other unsavory microbes.  In many places where tap water is not safe to drink, you may drink bottled water, but the chances are the ice that's put in it is made from tap water. 

People around the world with much warmer climate do not expect ice in every glass of water or soft drink they consume.  Traditional Japanese, Chinese and Indian medicines advocate the drinking of warm water with meals. Then why do we consume all this ice?  According to Peter Russell, ice is a social addiction. We don't need it, but we've been led to believe we can't do without it. Yet we get nothing from it but an oral stimulation.  Every addiction has its cost. In this case it is unnecessary energy consumption, increased environmental degradation, and possible damage to your health. So the next time you are offered ice, just say "No" and help save energy, water and the environment.