{"id":522,"date":"2015-02-26T17:14:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/?p=522"},"modified":"2015-02-26T17:14:51","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:14:51","slug":"how-many-big-macs-are-in-your-water-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/how-many-big-macs-are-in-your-water-bottle\/","title":{"rendered":"How many Big Macs are in your water bottle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Quick answer: there are 1.3 Big Macs in a bottle of water. <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Now we have some explaining to do! Read on&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was estimated that U.S. consumers purchased over 33 billion liters of bottled water in 2007 (Cooley &amp; Gleick, 2009). The production of all that bottled water included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>making the plastic bottles,<\/li>\n<li>processing the water,<\/li>\n<li>bottling the water,<\/li>\n<li>labeling the bottles,<\/li>\n<li>transporting the bottles,<\/li>\n<li>and chilling the water\u00a0before drinking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"560\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/how-many-big-macs-are-in-your-water-bottle\/water_bigmac\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658.jpg?fit=2431%2C2668&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2431,2668\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"water_bigmac\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658.jpg?fit=840%2C922&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-560\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658-273x300.jpg?resize=273%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"water_bigmac\" width=\"273\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658.jpg?resize=273%2C300&amp;ssl=1 273w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658.jpg?resize=933%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 933w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/water_bigmac-e1424966600658.jpg?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/>All of these processes require energy, which means there is a significant amount of <em>embodied energy<\/em> in bottled water. But how can we conceptualize that energy?<\/p>\n<p>One way that consumers think about energy is calories; food calories. It&#8217;s fairly well-known , for example, that a &#8220;standard&#8221; diet is about 2000 calories. So we thought it would be interesting to use food calories to evaluate the embodied\u00a0energy in a bottle of water. (Especially since it is well\u00a0known that water itself has <em>zero<\/em> food calories!)<\/p>\n<p>Taking it a step further, let&#8217;s compare the energy required to produce bottled water and the amount of food energy contained within a Big Mac from McDonald\u2019s. This\u00a0is the frame for our question; how many Big Macs are your water bottle?<\/p>\n<p>According to a paper written by Cooley &amp; Gleick in 2009, the total energy required to produce a bottle of water is between 5.6 and 10.2 MJ<sub>(th)<\/sub> per liter.\u00a0For our\u00a0analysis we will use the small end of that range: 5,600,000 Joules per liter of bottled water.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Mc Donald\u2019s website, there are 530 food calories in a Big Mac (Mc Donald&#8217;s, 2010-2014).<\/p>\n<p>Although nutritional facts for food products are written in calories, they are actually kilocalories (kcal) in scientific\/engineering terms. So the Big Mac has 530,000 &#8220;science&#8221; calories.<\/p>\n<p>The conversion for &#8220;science&#8221; calories to Joules is 4.184 Joules per calorie, so we can calculate the Joules of energy stored in a Big Mac:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/latex.php?latex=530%2C000%5Ctext%7B+calories%7D%5Ctimes%5Cdfrac%7B4.184%5Ctext%7B+Joules%7D%7D%7B1%5Ctext%7B+calorie%7D%7D%3D2%2C220%2C000%5Ctext%7B+Joules%7D&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000&#038;s=0&#038;c=20201002\" alt=\"530,000&#92;text{ calories}&#92;times&#92;dfrac{4.184&#92;text{ Joules}}{1&#92;text{ calorie}}=2,220,000&#92;text{ Joules}\" class=\"latex\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now we\u00a0compare this to the amount of energy that goes into producing bottled water &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/latex.php?latex=%5Cdfrac%7B%5Cdfrac%7B5%2C600%2C000+%5Ctext%7B+Joules%7D%7D%7B1%5Ctext%7B+liter+of+bottled+water%7D%7D%7D%7B%5Cdfrac%7B2%2C220%2C000%5Ctext%7B+Joules%7D%7D%7B%5Ctext%7BBig+Mac%7D%7D%7D%3D2.52%5Ctext%7B+Big+Macs+per+liter+of+bottled+water%7D&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000&#038;s=0&#038;c=20201002\" alt=\"&#92;dfrac{&#92;dfrac{5,600,000 &#92;text{ Joules}}{1&#92;text{ liter of bottled water}}}{&#92;dfrac{2,220,000&#92;text{ Joules}}{&#92;text{Big Mac}}}=2.52&#92;text{ Big Macs per liter of bottled water}\" class=\"latex\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is in terms of liters of bottled water; however, a typical bottle is only about half a liter. Dividing 2.53 by two yields about 1.26 Big Macs per one half liter bottle of water. We&#8217;re justified in rounding a bit further, so we can say <\/p>\n<p><strong>1 half-liter bottle of water = 1.3 Big Macs<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>(in terms of embodied energy vs. food energy)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Next time you think about buying bottled water, I hope you consider the energy implications; feel free to use &#8220;Big Mac Units&#8221; while you ponder.<\/p>\n<p>What we have <em>not<\/em> done here is evaluate the embodied energy in the Big Mac. That will have to be the subject of a future post. <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>References<\/h1>\n<p>Cooley, H.S. &amp; Gleick, P. H. (2009). Energy implications of bottled water. <em>Environmental Research Letters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mc Donald&#8217;s<\/em>. (2010-2014). Retrieved from Big Mac: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcdonalds.com\/us\/en\/food\/product_nutrition.burgerssandwiches.5.big-mac.html\">http:\/\/www.mcdonalds.com\/us\/en\/food\/product_nutrition.burgerssandwiches.5.big-mac.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quick answer: there are 1.3 Big Macs in a bottle of water. Now we have some explaining to do! Read[&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/BigMac_BlogPost.jpg?fit=4000%2C3000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FV6M-8q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cecas.clemson.edu\/ladnergroup\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}