It’s extraordinary how much water is used to make products that seem to have so little water in them. I wrote about this last September. We’re in the territory of embedded water or virtual water. It includes all water use from irrigating the raw materials to managing the waste.
Here is a revealing set of comparisons from the University of Twente/Unesco:
| Embedded /virtual water | Litres |
| Sheet of paper | 10 |
| Cup of tea | 30 |
| Apple | 70 |
| Cup of coffee | 140 |
| Bottle of beer | 150 |
| Loaf of bread | 440 |
| Fillet of chicken | 680 |
| 1kg bag of sugar | 1,500 |
| 500g of cheese | 2,500 |
| 1kg of rice | 3,400 |
| Beef steak | 3,875 |
| Pair of jeans | 10.850 |
In a water constrained world, this certainly helps put the consequences of our consumer choices into a clearer perspective. It should also help us make more sensible use of our most precious natural resource.
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