What is a water footprint? The water footprint is the amount of water used in the production of goods. And yes, I am talking about the water me and you drink!
There are 3 types of water footprints:
★ Bluewater footprint - Surface or groundwater introduced into products and returned to the environment.
★ Green water footprint-Evaporated water that comes from rain and humidity.
★ Greywater footprint-Water polluted by the production of goods and services.
There are 3 types of water footprints:
★ Bluewater footprint - Surface or groundwater introduced into products and returned to the environment.
★ Green water footprint-Evaporated water that comes from rain and humidity.
★ Greywater footprint-Water polluted by the production of goods and services.
So how much water is used in actual products?
Take smartphones as an example . Smartphones consist of many small and large components such as earth metals. Surprisingly each step of production includes water which just contributes to the water footprint. A whooping estimated 3,190 gallons in a total of water is used. In addition products such as 1 pound of plastic needs at least 22 gallons of water and plastic bottles use twice the amount of water they can contain. In fact, 1 pound of cotton contains 1320 gallons of water.
Here are some everyday products and how much water they need to be produced:
★ A Car-13,737–21,926 gallons (52,000–83,000 liters)
★ 1 pair of Leather shoes-2,113 gallons (8,000 liters)
★ 1 pair of Jeans-2,866 gallons (10,850 liters)
★ A Cotton t shirt-659 gallons (2,720 liters)
★ 1 A4 sheet of paper-1.3 gallons(5.1 liters)
How can we help reduce the water footprint?
The funny thing is about 70% of the world is covered in water but only 0.03% is usable for us humans and this is due to the water footprint consistently increasing .The answer to reduce it is “REDUCE , REUSE , RECYCLE.”The fewer things you buy in the first place reduces the amount of goods produced in the first place. Recycling the goods example cotton and plastic equally helps as well.Recycling a pound of paper – the same amount found in a typical daily newspaper – saves 3.5 gallons of water. Same goes for plastic bags, try to use reusable bags such as ours at bagsbytheocean. Bagsbytheocean bags are made of upcycled industrial wastage which help you decrease your water footprint and we also make you stylish doing it ! Now, we may not be able to bring an end to the water footprint but conscious individual decisions are certain to have a positive effect on the environment.
The funny thing is about 70% of the world is covered in water but only 0.03% is usable for us humans and this is due to the water footprint consistently increasing .The answer to reduce it is “REDUCE , REUSE , RECYCLE.”The fewer things you buy in the first place reduces the amount of goods produced in the first place. Recycling the goods example cotton and plastic equally helps as well.Recycling a pound of paper – the same amount found in a typical daily newspaper – saves 3.5 gallons of water. Same goes for plastic bags, try to use reusable bags such as ours at bagsbytheocean. Bagsbytheocean bags are made of upcycled industrial wastage which help you decrease your water footprint and we also make you stylish doing it ! Now, we may not be able to bring an end to the water footprint but conscious individual decisions are certain to have a positive effect on the environment.