flu bug mug math crazy thoughts

I’m a potter, and I can’t go to the pottery  because I’m sick with the flu, and my brain is all foggy, and I don’t want to go out and give anybody else what I got, especially with all the swine flu crazy. So what do I do ? mug math story problems ? 

If I drink 5 to 8 beverages per day, and use the same mug
 365 X 5 mug uses a day = 1,825
 365 x 8 a day = 2,920 in a year.
or
Averaged to 6.5 mugs of liquid per day. 6.5 x 365 = 2,372.5

(mug area is 2.5” x 2.5”= 6.25" x 356 days = 14,828.125"(area in feet 1,235'.677")

If I could use a new mug for each beverage I drink, every day and set them on the ground, visually the area to set 2,372.5 mugs, would fit inside the lines of half of a tennis court. area in feet 1,235 x 2 = 2,470'

A Tennis court is  78 feet x  27 feet for singles matches ( area in feet =  2,106) and  78 feet x 36 feet for doubles ( area in feet = 2,808 ). Additional clear space around the court is required in order for players to reach overrun balls.  Or in my scenario have enough space to leave a path to walk around all of the mugs set on the court.

I read statistics about garbage, what the heck does 180 million tons of garbage a year mean? I have no clue. So I break it down. because I have this pet-peeve about millions of anything. And a ton of anything ? is it a 2 ton truck or a bail of paper ? forget that, I’m more entertained by what I can see and pick up in my hands anyway . So instead of trying to imagine what 100 million tons of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean looks like. I choose to try and  imagine what just one millions disposable beverage containers looks like.

I can as mentioned above imagine what 365 days worth of mugs looks like. I see them as days, 12 calender pages laid out on the floor. To be big enough to set those 6.5 beverage containers on the days so that I can see them, each date square would have to have to have an area to fit 6 and half containers that averaged 2.5 x 2.5 "(6.5 cups x an area of 6.25" = 40.625" x 365 = 14,828.125" (3.385..x 365 = 1,235.677) rounded to an area of 1,235. feet if you scrunched the containers together in that half of a tennis court sized area.

So two years of beverage containers 2 x 2,372.5 at 6.5 a day could bet set inside the lines of one tennis court. Ok, now I can imagine 4,745 once use beverage containers set in a tennis court ..but a million ? what does that look like ?

A football field is 100 yards or 300 feet long and 160 feet wide. area in feet = 48,000’.

48,000’ x 12 = 576,000” area in inches divided by 6.25" area to set each cup, can or bottle = 92,160 containers to cover an entire football field.

Ok, I can see it, 92,160 pieces on the yard lines. Now, how many layers deep does the beverage container trash need to be to = a million ? 1 mill. / 92.160 = 10.85....

10.85 layers Ok. - How tall is that ? aluminum cans are 4" h, 12 oz. cups are 5" h, 12-16 oz. bottles are 8" to 9" tall so average is 6.5" tall x 10.85 = 5.87" tall .(5.75 = five feet 9. So?

There ya go, holy crap! can you image it ? a million beverage containers cover a football field and pile up higher then I am, at 5.8" tall.

I think about this for three seconds and shift back to washing and reusing my coffee mug.

Even If each person who used their own mugs, glasses, travel mugs etc.. lost or broke one mug or glass a week 52 / million. It would take 19,230.768 years, or 19,231 people to fill that football field with a million reusable beverage mugs, or glasses and it would take even longer, if any of the lost mugs were found and used by somebody else. I don't think most people really lose or break 52 mugs or glasses a year, but a lot of people have quite a few dishes in their cupboards and I'm going with the million thing, you get the idea. Good news is glass and ceramics use less BTUs to make per pound then steal, plastic or aluminum. And they don’t leach chemicals into our bodies like plastic, or or float on the sea, chocking sea life, they sink to the bottom and become beach glass and pebbles.

1 million / 2,372.5 throw-aways = 421.49 years or only 421 and a half people. To fill the football field with a million once use beverage containers. .. huh? So what does 421 people look like ? ..

Then I pause for a moment and think about what the garbage of the 100 people in my building looks like, imagine the football field again.. Then after the pile of mixed trash in my imagination is piled higher then the stadium chairs, I think these story problems about the US garbage problem is not going to help me get over the flu because it’s too depressing.

Hey everybody, do me a favor before you get that beverage on the run and throw that once use container in the bin, choose instead to drink water from a filter in a real glass or carry a refillable water bottle, or drink a beer on tap, or a coffee or tea in a ceramic mug today.

reduce + reuse to avoid recycle

Thanks, Uva