5 ms·

I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands:

by nkurz 6y ago

I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands: https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-2010-ProductWaterFootprintAssessments.pdf https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-... It concludes that each .5L bottle requires 35L of water as input. The majority of this is from the water required to grow sugar beets, which comes primarily from natural rainfall. Obviously, India is not the Netherlands, but I'd guess the same principle applies: growing the sweetener takes a lot of water, and theoretically there could be better uses for this water.

deleted 6y ago
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slim 6y ago
coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.
- johannes1234321 6y ago
  This is a nice legend about the secret recipe. However production differs oflver the world. I.e. I'm the US the sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, while Europe uses Sycrose.
  - bb611 6y ago
    And in Mexico uses cane sugar.
    - selimthegrim 6y ago
      Actually I think that’s only the version they export to US now
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    It's possible to find sugar-sweetened in the US: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053 I've never tried to get HFCS here, but doubt it'd be easy. (anyone know specifically why the sweetener differs? I'm guessing either cost or legislation...)
    - RichardCA 6y ago
      Different theories, but there's a strong belief that Archer Daniels Midland lobbied intensively to create the current status quo in the US. http://www.motherlindas.com/HFCS_murky.htm http://www.motherlindas.com/HFCS_murky.htm https://grist.org/article/adm-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-ethanol https://grist.org/article/adm-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-e... https://youtu.be/gPbh6Ru7VVM https://youtu.be/gPbh6Ru7VVM (skip to 5:30)
- osamagirl69 6y ago
  Even in places where concentrate is delivered, they add the sweetener (HFCS, sugar, fruit juice, etc depending on location and product) at the bottling plant. Coke is about 10% by volume sugar, and the pre-mixed syrup with sweetener (like used in soda fountains) is usually prepared for a 5:1 dilution ratio in a soda fountain. The concentrate that goes to the bottling plants is basically straight phosphoric acid and caffeine with some secret 'natural flavors' that is usually diluted at more than 1:100 ratio with the sweetener.
ginko 6y ago
Considering India is producing 20% of the world sugarcane I think sourcing a sweetener shouldn't be a problem.
- nkurz 6y ago
  True, but how is this relevant to how the amount of water used in producing the product affects water scarcity? Are you saying that because they "source" the sweetener it shouldn't be counted as an impact of the production?

by nkurz 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

slim 6y ago

coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.

johannes1234321 6y ago
This is a nice legend about the secret recipe. However production differs oflver the world. I.e. I'm the US the sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, while Europe uses Sycrose.
- bb611 6y ago
  And in Mexico uses cane sugar.
  - selimthegrim 6y ago
    Actually I think that’s only the version they export to US now
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  It's possible to find sugar-sweetened in the US: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053 I've never tried to get HFCS here, but doubt it'd be easy. (anyone know specifically why the sweetener differs? I'm guessing either cost or legislation...)
  - RichardCA 6y ago
    Different theories, but there's a strong belief that Archer Daniels Midland lobbied intensively to create the current status quo in the US. http://www.motherlindas.com/HFCS_murky.htm http://www.motherlindas.com/HFCS_murky.htm https://grist.org/article/adm-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-ethanol https://grist.org/article/adm-high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-e... https://youtu.be/gPbh6Ru7VVM https://youtu.be/gPbh6Ru7VVM (skip to 5:30)
osamagirl69 6y ago
Even in places where concentrate is delivered, they add the sweetener (HFCS, sugar, fruit juice, etc depending on location and product) at the bottling plant. Coke is about 10% by volume sugar, and the pre-mixed syrup with sweetener (like used in soda fountains) is usually prepared for a 5:1 dilution ratio in a soda fountain. The concentrate that goes to the bottling plants is basically straight phosphoric acid and caffeine with some secret 'natural flavors' that is usually diluted at more than 1:100 ratio with the sweetener.

ginko 6y ago

Considering India is producing 20% of the world sugarcane I think sourcing a sweetener shouldn't be a problem.

nkurz 6y ago
True, but how is this relevant to how the amount of water used in producing the product affects water scarcity? Are you saying that because they "source" the sweetener it shouldn't be counted as an impact of the production?