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