Fun Fact: How Much Carbon Is Emitted from DRINKING Coca Cola?

[berni_mccoy]

World Wide, about 612,000 METRIC TONS per year. That's just CO2 that's released from the liquid.

I discovered this first, by finding out there is roughly 5 g of carbon in a 1 liter bottle (source: http://www.science-house.org/CO2/activities/co2/soda.html).

Then I found the world wide consumption data of Coke right on their website: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/ar/pdf/perCapitaConsumption2008.pdf

On average, each person in the world drank 85 8-oz servings last year (in America, we drank 412 8-oz servings per person).

8 oz = 0.24 liters which means world wide, each person drank 20.4 liters.

Assuming 6 billion people, that translates into 122.4 billion liters.

At 5g of CO2 per liter, that's 612 billion grams of CO2.

And 612 billion grams = 612,000 metric tons.

That's just from drinking it. I wonder how much goes into making, bottling and distributing it? And that's just Coca Cola.

[Buzz Clik]

1. That's kinda fun, but...

... keep in mind that it was CO₂ when it went into the bottle, and the CO₂ was taken from the air. If we took all that coke and buried it deep underground, we'd actually be on the plus side of carbon sequestration. As it is, putting the CO₂ in the bottle and then letting it out again is carbon neutral.

[michreject]

2. I drink RC Cola

So I'm safe.;-)

[yodoobo]

3. Zero

Well Zero net. At least the drinking part of it.

While you certainly release carbon when open it up, this is carbon that was captured, removed from the environment and bottled from somewhere else in the world.

Its kinda like asking how much water does bottled water unleash onto the Earth. None. (here again the problem is in the transportation, bottle disposal and manufacturing)