Monday, September 17, 2018

Food Energy Water Waste Footprint

I calculated a 2-day average of my Food, Energy, Water, & Waste footprint and compared it to both last year and the average in the United States. My energy footprint was higher this year than last year. This year, I averaged 270,000 BTU/day. This is a 5% increase and is a little higher than the average per capita use in North Dakota (the highest state average of energy use). There were three main contributors to this increase: I traveled further to work (by Metro), I kept lights on longer, and I used a clothes dryer to de-wrinkle some clothes rather than an iron. Surprisingly, this last item amounted to a  10,000 BTU increase in energy!! My water usage was about the same. Excluding food, I used 100 gal/day, which is slightly below the national average and significantly lower than the DC average. My waste weighed about 5 lbs/day, which is slightly higher than average. This was skewed to slightly higher values because I had to throw out my watermelon before consuming it. It had split open and was foaming just two days after purchase. It must have over-ripened and was fermenting before I even purchased it. Two things I will change in the future is to reduce my light usage and not use the clothes dryer to de-wrinkle clothes.

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