Eric DesRoberts continues his monthly series of facts and tidbits he’s uncovered during his research to better understand products and packaging. You can also check out his past Fun Facts here.
1. Meat content in fast food hamburgers ranges between 2-14% on average. The other 85-98% includes fillers like: blood vessels, nerves, cartilage, and chemicals like ammonia to control bacteria.
2. One glass of beer (250 ml) requires about 20 gallons of water. Most of the water is used to produce the barley. Approximately 203,576,450 barrels of beer were sold US in 2010. At roughly 31 gallons a barrel and 3.79 liters per gallon, this equates to roughly 2 trillion gallons of water used to produce the beer sold in the US. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
3. The average American uses 40 pounds of toxic cleaning productseach year. Over 90% of all human poison exposure occurs in a patient’s own home. The substances most frequently involved include painkillers, cosmetics, and household cleaning products.
4. Cities are spending approximately $2,000 per trash can every year to collect waste. In the US, garbage trucks consume about 1.5 billion gallons of diesel fuel.
5. A recent report released by KPMG International Cooperative examines industry revenue (EBITA) with potential environmental costs. The study finds the highest environmental costs among food producers ($200 billion). Looking back to 2002 levels, this was the only sector observed where environmental cost growth rates exceeded revenue growth. Over the same time period, the automobile industry was the only sector with a reported negative growth rate for environmental cost. The report goes on to state that if industries were forced to internalize these costs, revenues could be cut by 40%.
