Reusing a mason jar for one semester saves enough energy to power a home off the grid for one day.
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Project data
Location Arcata, California
Status Deployed

The objective of this project is to analyze and compare the effects of the HSU policy and pricing regarding mason jars and disposables in terms of its monetary costs, carbon dioxide emissions, and embedded energy. A secondary goal is to create a recommendation that would improve the overall functionality of the policy. Another goal was to create compelling comparisons for consumers.

This page includes macros that are the result of a research project in partnership between Engr308 Technology and the Environment, The Sustainability Office, and Dining Services at Cal Poly Humboldt during Fall 2016.

The full analysis is at HSU mason jar analysis.

Images[edit | edit source]

The following images were created by students in Engineering 308, Technology and the Environment, using the calculations from HSU mason jar analysis. These values include many assumptions that can be checked in the spreadsheets below, as well as the results from the mason jar analysis spreadsheet. The mason jar analysis spreadsheet includes the embedded energy and CO2 for the mason jars, plastic cups, and paper cups used at Cal Poly Humboldt (HSU) in 2016. The embedded energy and CO2 includes manufacturing, shipping to HSU from the manufacturer, and disposal from HSU. These spreadsheets are available for analysis and adaptation at other universities, institutions and communities.

Reusing a mason jar for one month, instead of using a disposable cup, saves enough energy to charge an iPhone for almost 2 years.

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Below is the gallery of the macros created:

Spreadsheets[edit | edit source]

Screenshot from one of the comparison spreadsheets... specifically from the Coffee Brewing comparison sheet.

The spreadsheets for each of the comparisons can be found here:

Each of the files follows the same naming convention as the images above. These spreadsheets are available for transparent analysis and adaptation by others. The spreadsheets were made by students and are not vouched for by HSU or any of its employees.

Caveats[edit | edit source]

These spreadsheet comparisons were made with a gas mileage number that was slightly too large for semi trucks. Specifically, the comparison spreadsheet used an average gas mileage for shipping trucks of 9.2 km/gal. The correct value is closer to 14.8 km/gal, greatly depending on terrain.[1] This change has negligible impact on the comparison macros. The total impacts on the base values are shown in the table below:

Mason Jar Paper Cup Plastic Cup
Previous Embedded Energy (kWh/unit) 1.81 0.262 0.273
Updated Embedded Energy (kWh/unit) 1.69 0.261 0.270
Previous Carbon Dioxide (kg/unit) 0.509 0.052 0.035
Uodated Carbon Dioxide (kg/unit) 0.469 0.052 0.034

Press[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. From "TABLE 28. Fuel Efficiency of Class 8 Trucks by Vehicle Weight Range on Flat Terrain at 65 mph" - http://cta.ornl.gov/vtmarketreport/pdf/chapter3_heavy_trucks.pdf
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Part of HSU mason jar analysis, Engr308 Technology and the Environment
Keywords life cycle analysis, cbsm, mason jar, paper cup
SDG SDG07 Affordable and clean energy
Authors Lonny Grafman
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Organizations Cal Poly Humboldt
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 14 pages link here
Aliases HSU mason jars, HSU mason jar comparisons
Impact 1,331 page views
Created December 11, 2016 by Lonny Grafman
Modified January 29, 2024 by Felipe Schenone
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