Most of us recoil in horror when we think of any type of combination of cellphones and water, but did.
There are two types of water use; direct water use and indirect water use. Direct water use is the use of water for drinking, bathing, doing the laundry and so on. Indirect water use is the water that is used in manufacturing various products.
Virtual Water in Your Cellphone
When we talk about virtual water in your cellphone, we are referring to the water that was used in the manufacture of that cellphone.
Most of the water that is used on a daily basis is indirect water use:
· Food: Water that is used for irrigation of crops and for feed stock for the animals bred for human consumption;
· Power: Water that is utilised to cool power plants and for extracting and refining fossil fuels;
· Products: Water that is used in the extracting, refining and manufacturing of most of the products that we use every day
Indirect water use is the water that was utilised to grow, process, manufacture and transport the products that we use, the services that we make use of and the food that we eat every day.
Cellular phones, made from plastic, metal and glass, are a good example of a product that utilises a huge amount of water in the manufacturing process:
1. Glass: Glass is made from a silica, extracted from a quarry, refined and made into glass which is then packaged and sent to the cellphone factory to be made into the parts required in a phone; all of these processes require water.
2. Metals: The metal used in a cellular phone must be mined and refined and then transported to the cellphone manufacturer; water is used in all three steps.
3. Plastics: Plastics are derived from oil, which must be drilled from the ground, refined in a refinery and turned into plastic. These plastic pellets are then transported to a manufacturer who turns the pellets into plastic parts which are then sent to the cellphone manufacturer. Once again, every step of this requires water.
4. Packaging: Every cellular phone is nicely packaged at the manufacturer. At least some plastic is used in the packaging, and there is the water component again.
5. Transportation: At every step of the way, transportation is involved in getting something from point A to point B; all transportation fuels require water for extraction and refining.
Why is it important to think about the virtual water in your cellphone? It is important to know because the more you upgrade to a more modern phone the more water is used; save water by not upgrading to a new cellular phone unless you REALLY need to.
In what states (phases) can water be found?
Water exists in three states: solid, liquid and gaseous. At a normal temperature of about 25oC it is liquid, but below 0oC it will freeze and turn to ice. Water can be found in the gaseous state above 100oC, this is called the boiling point of water, at which water starts to evaporate. The water turns to gas and is then odourless and colourless. How fast water evaporates depends on the temperature; if the temperature is high, water will evaporate sooner.
See More at : (https://www.living-water.co.uk/blog/this-is-water/basic-chemistry-water)
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