My daily use of Earths resources.

For this week's blog, my class and I are to make a list of everything we use throughout the day to show the correlation between what we use and and the effect that it has on the earth as well as how the earth has effected the product.

A) Food and Drink.

Water

Orange (3)

Dr.Pepper (2)

Beans

Cheese

Torilla

salsa

B) Housing and other Buildings

My house

My work (Brothers Truck's)

My friend's auto shop (Toolman Smog)

DMV

RCC

C) Transportation and Roads

My Car

91 Freeway

15 Freeway

residentail roads

main streets

D)Clothing

Shirt

Pants

Socks

Shoes

Hoodie

Sunglasses

E) School Supplies

Folder

Pencils

Pens

Paper

Textbooks

Calculator

Ruler

Colored Pencils

F) Personal Care Products

Toothbrush

Toothpaste

Shampoo

Soap (hand/body)

Deoderant

Towel

Toiletries

Mouth Wash

G) Leisure Activities

Talked on the phone

Used my Laptop

Watched TV

Washed my car

          Based off of my list I am to research one of the items on my list and answer some questions about that particular item and provide information that I was able to gather from my research. This information will include what the item is made of, how it is used, how it got to me, what will happen when it is no longer "useful" and more. The item I decided to choose is my favorite soft drink, Dr. Pepper.

Dr.Pepper pictured here:    

Dr.Pepper is comprised of 23 flavors as well as some other ingredients which gives it the delicious flavor many have come to enjoy. The ingredients in a Dr. Pepper are: Carbonated water, High fructose corn syrup, Caramel color, Phosphoric acid, Artificial and Natural flavors, Sodium benzoate (preservative), and Caffeine. In some markets Sugar is used rather than High fructose corn syrup. Dr. Pepper is housed in plastic bottles as well as aluminum cans, which are bottled in Texas at the main facility. Dr. Pepper is used as a thirst quencher, and in my personal opinion the most delicious of soft drinks on the market.

The Aluminum cans that houses this nectar is made from a material found in the earth's crust. This material is called Bauxite which is mined typically overseas and shipped to the United States. The process of making Aluminum is a long and drawn out process which involves electricity "zapping" the refined powder Alumina (remainders of impurities in Bauxite) which separates the Aluminum from the from the oxygen. The constant electricity on the alumina causes the aluminum to separate and become a hot bubbly liquid until forming into large sheets of aluminum. More information about the Aluminum process can be found at this website: http://www.alcoa.com/rigid_packaging/en/about/making_cans.asp

When the product is used and becomes no longer "useful" they will either go to the recycling center or the dump. At the recycling center the aluminum cans are melted down back to liquid form, "purified" and reformed to its original state to be reused by aluminum manufactures. At the dump the cans remain in the land fill until being melted down with the rest of the trash, which no longer be reused. 

Dr. Pepper was invented and sold in 1855 in the state of Texas. Dr. Pepper was the invention of a man named, Charles Alderton, an employee of Morrison's old corner drug store. Charles invented Dr. Pepper by mixing flavor syrups together based off of the smells resonating from the drug store. This product is most definitely a want over a need, because you are not required to consume it to live, but consuming this soft drink brings an explosion of flavor to one's pallet that is extremely enjoyable. For more information on the history of Dr. Pepper you can visit the Dr. Pepper Museum, or its website provided here: http://www.drpeppermuseum.com/About-Us/History-Of-Dr--Pepper.aspx 

What surprised me about this product is the process on how the soda is provided. I had no clue that the aluminum cans were imported from overseas or that depending on the market this soda is sold in the ingredients change. I think what we can do to more conserve Earth's resources is recycle more often. By recycling more we can cut back on using Earth's precious materials for personal use on something that is not 100% necessary.