Declare Your Beverage Independence!

Ever wondered how much CO2 emissions are generated to make & deliver a soft drink? We were inspired to explore this question after reading Jennifer Wilkin’s recent article on bottled beverages.

We went looking for some good numbers, and here’s what we found:

*The processing, bottling, and transport of one gallon of bottled water requires the equivalent energy of burning 0.25 gallons of crude oil. It’s roughly the same for soda and sports drinks. source

*Burning one gallon of crude oil releases 21.7 lbs of CO2 into Earth’s atmosphere. source

When you consider how many soft drinks are consumed by an average American, the numbers get pretty big. We found that:

*The average American drinks 1.1 gallons of soda or sports drinks per week. source

So, the soft drink consumption of an average American results in 6 pounds of CO2 emissions per week and over 300 pounds per year.



Interested in a Carbonrally challenge? Declare you beverage independence. Avoid bottled soda, tea, and sports drinks for one month and reduce your CO2 emissions by 25.7 lbs.