1st Down: Crude Oil in Football Equiptment

I'm a very big fan of American football. I played football in high school and I had no idea that actually playing the sport would change the way I view football forever. I have much more of a profound love and respect for the game that I could have ever imagined.

Many athletes from Pop Warner to the NFL participate in American football each fall season. Petrochemicals, which are chemicals obtained from petroleum or natural gas, can play a vital role in the game. One must consider the plastics used to play the sport,  the artificial turf and plastic souvenirs and cups being used for beverage consumption every game. Lets break down use of plastic concerning the actual uniform, field as well as the ball.

Helmet 
The outer shell of the helmet is made of a polycarbonate alloy with protective liners, some of which are inflatable, and contains foams that are meant to absorb energy on impact. The face mask is made up of either plastic or steel wire coated with a thermoplastic made up of polyethylene copolymer. The foam inside the helmet is made up of vinyl nitrate, a blend of polyvinyl chloride (PVP) and nitrile rubber

Pads
The shoulder pads underneath the uniform are constructed with a hard plastic outer shell with foam underneath to absorb the impact. The outer shell of most pads are made out of carbon fiber, produced from petroleum, coal tar pitch or polyacrylonitrille. The foam beneath the shoulder pads are also used for the thigh, knee, tail and hip pads is made using ethylene -vinyl acetate (EVA) which a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate (VAM)

Uniforms
Football jerseys and uniforms are made up of a comfortable, durable and expandable fabric made mostly of nylon with polyester and spandex. Polyester as a material is made out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and PET is used mostly during the production of water bottles and also for the production of clothing.

Cleats 
Its difficult to break down what exactly goes into making cleats because there are so many brands of cleats that cater to particular athletes. However, there essential materials that go into making cleats such as synthetic leather, nylon or polyester. The shoelaces can be cotton or nylon. Midsole could be made out of EVA or PU. The outsole of the shoe is going to be made out of durable material to gain traction with different turfs and most shoes used in the sport today use a screw-on cleat made of steel or nylon polymer.

Field 
Originally football was played on natural grass but in the 1960s natural grass became expensive to maintain in domed fields. In 1966, artificial turf was used for the first time in professional football. Initially the artificial grass was called "Chemgrass" but later referred to "Astro Turf" after making its debut in the Houston Astrodome. The fibers are made out of Nylon, polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene. Today's turf not only looks like natural grass but is also safer to play on, with added cushioning provided by high grade rubber surrounding each fiber, now made with polyethylene that is more player friendly.

Ball 
The NFL footballs are made up of the highest quality cowhides that are cut, sowed inside out, and laced around the bladder made of the butyl rubber, a copolymer of isobutylene with isoprene. Isoprene is a byproduct ethylene production process using naphtha or gas oil as feedstock.

Other 
Its hard to account for all the petrochemicals that are involved in the sport but there are many other petrochemical-made products surrounding the sport. Including replica jerseys made from nylon, polyester and spandex; foam fingers made from PU; cheerleaders megaphones made from PP; souvenir beverage cups made of PP. There are even instances where plastics makes their way into the construction of the stadium. For example, in some stadiums, seating is made made of a solid injection molded plastic. Most electronic scoreboards are made up of various plastics and in some cases for roofing and exterior.

Resource: http://blogs.platts.com/2015/08/28/friday-night-lights-football-petrochemicals/

Disposable Diapers: Ways to Cut Back

Everyone meet my son. His name is Zayden Knox Poushey Ford. Hes nine months old with a lot of personality as you can see. Being a father to a newborn means that I get to spend most of my hard earned cash on diapers. I would say that Zayden goes through about six-seven diapers a day. They only get used once and then thrown away. Disposable diapers also use a significant amount of crude oil.  This can become very wasteful of course and there are other alternatives to go greener with diapers. For example, cloth diapers. It would cut back on money but would also use a lot of energy washing and cleaning them. Should I keep using the disposable diapers that only get used once and thrown in the garbage or try to use cloth diapers instead? Lets weigh the options.

Now when it comes to disposable diapers over 90% of babies in the U.S wear them.  It takes 1.3 million tons of wood pulp-or 250,000 trees to create these diapers. Not to mention 82,000 tons of plastic ( according to the Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation). Since disposables are only used once and thrown away trees need to cut down and plastic needs to be produced from crude oil all day, everyday.

Let's say every new parent around the world stopped using disposable diapers and transitioned to cloth diapers. This would mean that other means of the Earth's resources would be consumed. This would include an alternative use of forests around the world as well as crops. The use of cotton could play a significant role when it comes to the manufacturing of cloth diapers. No one has ever implemented the idea.

Being new to parenthood it is easy to say that dirty diapers pile up! According to the U.S Environment Protection Agency, disposable diapers create 3.4 million tons of waste, making up 2.1% of trash, crowding the landfills in the United States.

The majority of the contents of the disposable diaper are made from crude oil and with more than 90% of parents choosing to use disposable diapers instead of cloth, our country is using more than 7 billion gallons of oil annually just on diapers. Since the materials produced to make disposable diapers don't break down easily in landfills, we're saddling future generations with overcrowded landfills and energy shortages due to our dependence on petroleum.

The cost of diapers can be pretty expensive. According to Consumer Reports the average parent will spend about $1,500 to $2,000 on disposable diapers before the child is potty trained. There has been comparisons concerning the price of disposable diapers and environmentally friendly diapers. For example, there's a product called the gDiaper. A consumer can purchase a starter pack of size small, medium and large, which contain two cloth pants and 10 disposable (flushable) liners. Refill packs containing 32 liners are available for only $13.99.

Not too bad right? Lets say that in two and a half years of diapering you would buy six starter packs, so that you would have at least four pairs of cloth pants in each size. You would then need to buy 186 refill packs for the 6,000 diaper changes you'll make. You'll spend around $2,600 gDiapering your baby.

The gDiaper sounds like a pretty cool alternative to disposable diapers. A parent could cut down waste, money and the use of the oil just by finding an alternative. Will I make that switch to gDiapers? It couldn't hurt to try.

Resource: "The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down -to-Earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet" https://books.google.com/books?id=H9rk023iNjkC&pg=PT194&lpg=PT194&dq=ways+to+cut+down+on+oil+diapers&source=bl&ots=dwB72hw27y&sig=MfjaXCD6iiFBek3rmgaK-4SWYww&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh2e2S-bjSAhVcVWMKHYiDBN04ChDoAQg7MAY#v=onepage&q=ways%20to%20cut%20down%20on%20oil%20diapers&f=false

Sneaker Sustainability

A new pair of synthetic running shoes can typically generate 13 kgs of CO2 emissions according to a team of MIT scientist. When  looking at the statistic alone it might not seem as serious but considering that running shoes produce no electricity, a pair of running sneakers leave a carbon footprint equivalent of a 100-watt lightbulb burning for an entire week. Now multiply this times millions of runners all over the world and billions of sneakers made very year. This can leave a pretty big impact concerning the use of natural resources.  

Besides plastics the sneakers industry uses crude oil repeatedly. As we all know, oil is not a sustainable resource. 

There are shoe brands that are trying to develop alternatives to the use of the oil. Take Nike for example. They’ve created a shoe called the Flyknit. With the Flyknit constructed with one knit upper that is stuck to the sole of the shoe. This makes the shoe lightweight, breathable and reduces waste.  Nike also has project called Reuse-A-Shoe. Old running shoes get recycled to Nike Grind and make great athletic turfs and playground surfaces.

Resource: http://www.urbanmeisters.com/sustainable-running-leave-a-greener-footprint-with-sthical-sneakers/