The final day but not the end.

So here we are, the end of the term. But just to throw out my opening statement, this is NOT the end of my PSP.  Actually, quite the opposite, I think it may only be the beginning.  One of the interesting experiences this class has brought to me is having a much better understanding of how inter-related all our human activities are.  I already knew that things aren’t necessarily as black-and-white as we try to make them out to be, but it is still fascinating to see how our individual PSP’s all connect at some level or another.

FROM THIS…TO THIS…TAKES THIS

                  

Take my now famous coffee cup for instance.  Of course my singular focus was that of not wasting the cup, but then I find out that in the course of making the coffee that goes in my cup 37 gallons of water, (Rebecca L. Goldman, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development , Vol. 52, Iss. 5, 2010).  When you start chasing down every part of your story you soon discover that there are many more topics that relate to my coffee habit.  Composting, energy waste and purchasing sustainably grown beans are just a few other easy connections to make in addition to excessive water use.

Wonder where I can find other areas in my life to save water…

 I’m not giving up my coffee!

Another consideration that came to me during our journey was this; where does the responsibility for good stewardship start?  Or more accurate, who has a bigger influence, the producer/merchant who is selling you the coffee, or you as the consumer?  In a study by A. Minton and R. Rose  (Journal of Business Research,Volume 40, Issue 1, September 1997, Pages 37–48,The Effects of Environmental Concern on Environmentally Friendly Consumer Behavior: An Exploratory Study)their conclusion is that “when, on the average, consumers‘ attitudes toward the environment are more favorable, their intentions to stop buying from companies that pollute (or buy from companies that do not pollute as much) and to make personal sacrifices to slow down pollution will be stronger and lead to more environmentally friendly consumer behaviors.”  In other words, as a concerned consumer, by making our purchasing decisions according to our personal convictions can steer a company into more sustainable business practices.

Vote with your money! Consumer behavior and preferences CAN change how business is done….

It is important that we continue to pay attention to the footprint we are leaving behind on this world.  As awareness has increased our overall efforts have definitely improved, for instance, our current municipal waste load going to the landfill is less than it was in 1990, but we’re still only recovering approximately a third of all the trash we generate (http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/United_States_Recycling_Statistics).  Obviously this will not be a sustainable approach as our population continues to grow.  My personal goal is at the end of my life to be able to say that I gave more to the world than what I took out of it.  Continuing my PSP, sharing with others  what that PSP is all about, and encouraging students at OSU to take GEO 300 in future terms are a few of the steps I hope to take towards accomplishing that goal.

One of the things I feel that is very important to remember is that our current problem of consumerism and its associated waste issues are only here because we were too lazy and let things get out of hand.  I have not bought one plastic bottle of water and saved about fifty paper cups from going to the landfill without really having to put too much effort into it.

So here is my parting thought; what little thing will YOU do to make yourself more sustainable?

I hope you will join me in accepting the challenge to be more sustainable.

Are You Convinced Yet?

It’s been about a month since I have purchased a bottle of water. It feels great knowing that I am helping the environment. It has been hard at times especially when I forgot to bring my water bottle. One thing I have realized is there are plenty of drinking fountains all over. It seems like every building on campus has several of them. Evenmost stores have them. For the past two weeks I have talked about the effect of water bottles in landfills. The good news is since 2009 water bottle sales have been declining (Mui, Aug). Part of this might be due to the economic downturn but regardless it is a good thing. This downturn has a huge impact on the environment and many believe it is due to the economy. I understand why for in the last four weeks I have saved around 55 dollars. If everyone stopped drinking bottled water and just drank tap water instead it would have a dramatic effect on the environment and I think a lot of people would be surprised at how much they save. Not only have I saved 55 dollars but I have saved the environment by preventing 55 water bottles from going into the landfill. After all 90% of bottles go to the landfill and aren’t recycled (Oliver, 2008). Don’t believe me? This site will tell you all about it. Not convicted to stop drinking bottled water yet? How about this, Tap water is safer to drink than bottled water. This is because tap water is regulated by the EPA which has standards and testing it has to comply with and bottled water is regulated by the FDA (Boyles, 2008).

I had a lot of fun doing my psp and felt like I was doing my part helping the environment. It will take everyone participating and making small changes like this in their lives before we really see a dramatic change though. I plan on continuing my psp and will be educating people along the way to get them to start their own psp. After all its going to take everyone trying to be more sustainable before the can reverse what we have already caused.

References

Mui, Y. (Aug). Bottled water boom appears tapped out. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/12/AR2009081203074.html
Oliver, R. (2008, April 7). Cnn. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/eco.plastics/index.html
Boyles, S. (2008, November 07). Questions and answers on bottled water and how it compares to tap water. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20081107/bottled-water-faq-on-safety-and-purity
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/graphics/FDAlogos1999/

Real Cost of Water!

Wow how time flies, can’t believe that for the past three week I have not purchased a bottled drink. The best part is I’m feeling GREAT. I definitely see myself making this a way of life. I have saved around $10 this week and to my surprise lost another couple pounds.

                With the rising gas prices it has been kind of nice having the extra couple dollars in my pocket that I would usually buy a drink with. When researching the economic effect of bottle water I found this. I was absolutely amazed at how much oil bottled water consumed. As Americans it seems like we are getting lazier. As this happens industries have been trying harder to make things more convenient for us. Usually when this happens it takes more packaging or materials, which also mean more oil is used to make this possible. This also means that with the extra demand we are driving up the cost of gas! So the next time you are shopping keep in mind of how it all relates and maybe buy bulk or go without.

Grey to Green: The Future

Three weeks down and the PSP project is going without a hitch.  By far a simpler process than I had expected with great positive results.  With no real maintenance and the washing machine doing all the work, this system is an easy project for any homeowner to begin.  I’ve had no issues with the lawn and or flower garden; all the products that I’ve used to clean the clothes have had no negative effects on the backyard ecosystem.  Tide laundry detergent has done a terrific job not only keeping my clothes clean but my lawn as well! (Joke) Another great side point to this system is that it is total hands free. What I mean is that once the clothes are placed into the washing machine, I don’t’ have to remember to fill the irrigation tank as the washing machine pumps the water to this system automatically.  So, it’s a no nonsense system that performs all the work for you, who could ask for more?  This PSP is great with multiple applications that I want to convert the remaining gray water uses to irrigation or in fact with some added money and time, I would like to reroute the plumbing to allow for reused gray water to be use as toilet water.  The bathroom is one of the largest consumers of indoor water besides the laundry machine.  On average the toilet can use up to 27% of the household water supply and with older toilet using around 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush with leaky toilets wasting about 200 gallons or water every day (http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html).  No just image reusing the grey water for this application and think of the impacts that it can provide.  These impacts can be seen not just in America but neighboring counties as well, countries that depend on the water that flows through the United States.

The driving force behind this project that is going to keep me on this path of sustainably is the fact that it is so simple and self regulation that little or no attention is needed on my part to continue the process of collect grey water for irrigation reuse.  The brunt of the work that I have to do is get my clothes dirty and place them into the laundry machine, wow not so difficult.  So, basically the simplicity of this project is what is enabling me to remain sustainable.  It basically comes down to this, if I can do this PSP everyone can.

Benefits to this project are not only monetary but environmental as well.  Yes, the sewer bill is going to be lowered by how much I don’t know yet, but I’ll assume by at least a few dollars over a one month span.  As well, the water bill is going to be reduced, with the amount of water I use daily to keep my lawn and garden green and living the bill is huge.  So by reusing grey water my hope is to reduce the water bill in half and then in the future with recycling grey water for toilet consumption I have hopes to reduce the bill even further.  One good benefit to this system although already kind of mentioned is the reduction of the cost of water for homeowners.  What I mean is that with continued raising populations, the amount of water per person is becoming scarce, with this means increased cost of water t=by the water companies.  This is a simple concept that has supply goes down and demand goes up so does the price.  This is our future; this is what life is going to be like if we as human don’t make the change now.  Think about if you just reduce the usage of water by as much as fifty gallons a day, now compound that annually and that is 18,250 gallons per year.  Now the current population size of the U.S. as of 2012 is 314,131,661 individuals (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html).  Image if every single person was to reduce their use by at least 50 gallons that would be a savings of 5.73×10¹² gallons annually.  Think of the possibilities especially from a system that is so simple to operate and maintain.  Come on people do your part to live sustainably and provide a future for the rest of the humans on this planet.  The time is now, reuse, reduce and recycle!!!

7 Sins of Bottled Water

So far, so good, for the past week I have bought 0 waters or sodas from the store. I am feeling good about my psp for a couple reasons. First I have saved about $15 this last week by drinking from a water bottle filled with tap water. Second I just feel a lot better physically and don’t feel like I am dragging especially with the heat wave that is on its way through. I think I am feeling this way because I am better hydrated. Something I did not expect over the last week was losing some weight. Since drinking so much water in the last week I don’t have the appetite I used to and therefore eat less and as a result I dropped a couple pounds. The coolest thing about this past week is my reduced footprint on the environment. When researching the issue more I found this list and thought it was pretty interesting.

The 7 Sins of Bottled Water  (Shapley, 2010)

1. Plastic bottles are made from petroleum.
2. The bottles often go into the trash, rather than the recycle bin (in part because many states don’t offer five-cent deposits to encourage recycling, as they do on soda and beer cans and bottles).
3. The water is pumped far from where it is sold, creating needless pollution as trucks and barges transport it across the country or around the world.
4. Some local communities have objected to the sale of their water, arguing that the water underground or flowing from natural springs is publicly owned and should not be exploited for profit.
5. Bottled water is rarely as closely monitored as tap water.
6. Tap water in the United States, when provided by a municipal system, is the most highly monitored and safe supply in the world.
7. Fifty percent of the water sold in little plastic bottles is tap water, but it costs an awful lot more per gallon.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bottled-water-47091001#ixzz22YVNpZKZ

What really caught my attention was 5 and 6. As a society we started drinking bottled water for convenience. What we might not realize is its affecting our quality of life in ways we might not even think of. Like the list shows bottled water is less regulated than tap water and can be more toxic. According to some geochemists in Germany “Plastic bottles continuously leach antimony into drinking water.” (Sanderson, 2006).

Shapley, D. (2010, august 12). Almost half of all bottled water comes from the tap, but costs you much more . Retrieved from http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bottled-water-47091001

Sanderson, K. (2006, January 19). Toxic risk in bottled water?. Retrieved from http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/January/19010601.asp

 

Hard to do? NO!

After one week of doing the project, I think that I have done a meaning job for me and for my community by just changing my habits a little. It turns out easier than what I thought.

Progress

I wrote a small note, and sticked it on the mirror in my bathroom.  So when I brushed my teeth, I saw the note, and remembered to switch the water off while brushing. This small tip really helped me out in reducing water usage, and even my roommate did that too. My friends came to my apartment, and they saw what I have been doing, and they said they might try to do it, because it is such an easy thing to do, and we can save money from utilities usage, and of course water resources. In this coming week, I decide to add one more thing in my reducing category. I’ll set time for my shower. I usually take shower for 15minutes, now I’ll reduce it to 10 minutes, and this action will save about 10-11 gallons of water each time, so I’ll save almost 80 gallons/week.

I finished collecting and designing my notebooks for my reusing category. I collected my passed papers, stapled them altogether, and designed the front page to make it look nice.

My two handmade notebooks

 

I’ll keep doing that in this week by having a box right next to my table, so whenever I have papers that I’m not going to use anymore, I’ll keep them in that box instead of throwing them to the trash. And when it gets enough to make a notebook, I’ll take my time to do it.

For my recycling category, I was really successful in doing that. I put a big bag right next to the trash, so when I drank all of the water in a bottle and about to throw it in the trash, I saw my recycling bottle bag, I threw it in the bag instead. I think there were about 30 or 35 bottles in the bag right now. I’ll continue doing that until my recycling bottle bag gets full, then I’ll go to my Fred Meyer or Winco to recycle them. I can’t wait to see how much money I get from recycling those bottles.

Recycling bottles and cans

Social aspect

This project is really a fun and motivated thing to do. I realize that I’m not only doing these things for this class, but also for myself, and the community. And I even realize that habit should be what we consider the right thing to do, not what we like to do because our habits can affect others. We waste lot of water, but so many people live far away from this country don’t have water to drink. There are so many reasons that motivating me for keep working on what I have been doing. I can change my habits to which I call “ good habits”, save money, and also natural resources.

In Oregon, we are called for recycling. And I’m sure we all realize that recycling is a right and good thing to do that beneficial for the society and ourselves, so this brings the best to both worlds. I found an article “Recycling Should Be Influenced By Government Policies”. This is a short article, but it talks about the US government policies being used to influence recycling. Click here to read.

I keep thinking about the poor people that don’t have access to water, and I feel guilty if I’m still wasting it. I throw the plastic bottles in the trash, and then I think about the harmful that plastic can cause, so I stop. People who don’t have access to much of the natural resources or too poor to afford it, they don’t ask for the amount of water or the money that we have saved from doing this recycling thing, but I believe they ask for our responsibilities. You and me should take thing slowly, and think about the effects of our actions to the environment before doing it. If it hurts our community or other communities, please, don’t do it!

Here is another really good article from 2005, which discussed about “Waste management and recycling in Asia”. Countries in Asia noticed their solid wastes, and they already put on actions to manage and control it, and so do we.

 

Works cited

Jacobson, Louis , and Khator Renu. “Recycling Should Be Influenced By Government Policies.” n. page. Web. 3 Aug. 2012. <http://russ.glaue.org/projects/recycling.html&gt;.

The Instilule for Global Environmental Strategies, . “Waste Management and Recycling in Asia.” 5.2 (2005): 477-498. Web. 3 Aug. 2012. <http://www.reventurepark.com/uploads/1_CWR_ART_11.pdf&gt;.

Saving the Water that Sustains Us

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My experience saving water has been an interesting and eye opening one. Shorter showers are the greatest sacrifice as I find them therapeutic and cutting them in half (or to a third) is a hard adjustment, but a worthwhile one as I have calculated. Washing dishes with a dishpan seemed like a gross hassle at first, but again once tried it was worth the water it saved. I thought reusing dishwater for multiple scrubbings would be unsanitary but a final soaping and rinsing solved that problem. Watering in the early morning or later evening was the easiest water saving adjustment to make, it simply required remembering to do it.

Shower: 27 second gallon; Therefore a 15 minute shower consumes roughly 33 gallons of water, and a 5 minute shower uses 11.

Kitchen Sink: 34 second gallon; Therefore leaving the faucet running for 20 minutes a day consumes roughly 38 gallons of water, using a dishpan cuts water consumption in half for a savings of about 19 gallons a day.

Garden Sprinkler: 31 second gallon; Therefore leaving the sprinkler on for 1 hour consumes 116 gallons of water. Over the course of the hour one pint of 18 fl oz of water accumulated in the bucket during the mid day watering and 19 fl oz accumulated during the evening watering. According to this calculation roughly 5 percent of water used for irrigation is lost to evaporation on a hot day!

By cutting shower length to one third the pre PSP length 22 gallons of water were saved daily, a surprisingly large number. Although the sacrifice of shorter showers is a relatively hard adjustment to make it is worth it (and the fish are thankful). By using the dishpan to reuse scrubbing water the faucet is only on for roughly half of the pre PSP length. I thought that the dishpan would save more water but each dish must be rinsed following the dishpan usage so the savings were less than anticipated. The irrigation time adjustment saved the least water relative to the total amount consumed during the irrigation cycle, 66% savings for shower, 50% savings for dishes, and 5% savings for irrigation while shower consumed a total of 11 gallons, dishes consumed 19 gallons, and irrigation used 116 gallons (although irrigation does not happen daily and the others do).

Sustainability is a social obligation. It is unfair, unjustifiable, and inexcusable to live such luxurious lifestyles as we Americans do and not consider the effect that this lifestyle has on the environment; the environment that gives us life, more so than cars, iphones, or even medicine. Beyond considering our effect on the environment, we must do something to ease the harmful affects each of us place on our surroundings. Clean drinking water along with many other aspects of our natural environment are essential to life, and taking action to preserve this water is crucial to human rights, quality of life, and future generations. If everyone could cut their water consumption in half fresh water would be available to millions more people. Furthermore, consuming the earth’s resources today is unfair to those generations to come.

Can two cups make a difference?

Hello, my name is JB, I’m a caffeine junkie…

Yes, from 7 years old on I have been drinking coffee, and my best guess is that while in utero my mother also drank more than her USDA recommended daily allowance. I can only imagine how much I would have grown past my current 6’1″ frame had I not been stunted because of her caffeine consumption. But, you may ask yourself, why are you bothering me with this information? Well, that same caffeine habit that I have honed so well over the years, also means that I am personally responsible for a ****load of paper cups going in the landfill. Sure, those cups may be made from post consumer recycled materials. Sure, those cups are compostable. But after I get done with that cup I still end up throwing it in the first random garbage can I can find.

I actually do carry a reusable china coffee tumbler in my car on the way to work, but once there it’s more or less a free-for-all on disposable cups. I do try to re-use them but after two or three times of doing so these things start to leak at the seam. It’s just never a good thing when you have coffee dribbling down your front as you’re sitting in class.

So here’s my plan; I’m going to purchase a dedicated for work and school coffee mug as well as a water bottle for the same purpose. I will keep track over the period of this term how many times I fill each one of them up, and how many paper cups and plastic water bottles as a result I will prevent from going into forever-land, aka Coffin Butte landfill. I realize I am only one person, but have you ever stopped to think how it all adds up?  A report conducted jointly by the Alliance for Environmental Innovation and Starbucks found that 1.9 billion cups were used by Starbucks in 2000 (environmentaldefense.org).  In 2006, Starbucks reported that the number had grown to 2.3 billion cups for use at their stores (starbucks.com).  Did you read that number slowly? TWO point THREE BILLION cups!!!  And that’s only Starbucks.  Now add in Peet’s, Seattle’s Best, Dutch Bros and on and on and you find that we have a serious situation on our hands.  Maybe starting with two cups CAN make a world of difference…

Environmental Defense.  Starbucks Paper Project Goals and Results. July 20th, 2007.
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=2155

Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility Report.  Fiscal Year 2006.
http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csrannualreport.asp

Saving the Water that Sustains Us

As the fossil fuel based, industrial development of our marble (planet) continues we are faced with two alarming problems: Arable soil degradation and erosion, as well as a shortage of the water needed to irrigate this arable soil. As the human population continues to expand, the demand for food increases, while the means with which this food is provided decreases. Water is the key to life, we may not understand the magnitude of the water shortage here in Oregon but this season those in agricultural areas around the rest of the country.

My plan is to reduce the amount of water that I consume. By participating in water-saving actions, measuring the difference they can make, and finally informing others on their plausibility and effectiveness. If everyone used half as much water, it would be as if there was twice as much water available for other processes. This plan directly addresses the problem at hand by conserving the resource we depend on while maintaining a state of luxury that is widely accepted by our culture. Therefore, it is a better way to address the problem than many other extreme or even diplomatic methods, after all one must practice whet they preach.

This project will be based on the collection of quantitative data, which can be applied to my entire household, or even Corvallis. The three methods of household water conservation that will be used are: not letting the water run while doing dishes, taking shorter showers, and irrigating the garden in the early morning or late at night when evaporation is reduced.

The status quo water consumption of each activity will be calculated by filling a 1 gallon bucket with water, timing how long it takes, and multiplying that time by the actual time spent performing that activity. The difference made by shortening showers, which deals simply with time, should be easy to find and compare. The dish washing strategy will be slightly more difficult, the water in the pan must be counted as well as anytime the faucet is on for rinsing. Measuring the garden irrigation method will involve placing the 1 gallon bucket somewhere beneath the sprinkler (same spot for both observations) and letting it run. The length of time required to fill the bucket will be measured in the middle of the day and during one of the recommended watering times and compared.

As mentioned before this plan does not require substantial sacrifice, therefore it will easily fit into my lifestyle, and should be easy to maintain following the PSP assignment. I feel as though these changes really can make a difference. Furthermore, I believe these simple actions are something everyone can participate in.

Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), Films Media Group, and Learning Zone Express (Firm). Go Green Around Your Home. Films Media Group, 2010. electronic resource (video).

Agriculture in Urban Planning Generating Livelihoods and Food Security. Ottawa, ON : London ; Sterling, VA: International Development Research Centre ; Earthscan, 2009. Web. 27 July 2012.

My “Triple R” Project

For my PSP Project, I’m going to eliminate waste and protect the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling as much as I can via specific actions in my daily life basis, and let’s call it a “Triple R Project”. 

This picture represents my theme

Why?

Before getting into a specific action for each category, I want to give reasons why reducing, reusing and recycling matter to me as well as every one of us. Recycling brings many benefits in term of environment and economy such as saving energy, maintaining natural resources, limiting pollution, and supporting several sectors of the economy (Brennan)

Here are some important statistics from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will explain each of these benefits of recycling in detail (I just pick some of the extreme one in the article):

“In 2003, the energy savings from recycling 54 billion aluminum cans exceeded the energy equivalent of 15 million barrels of crude oil – or the amount of gas the U.S. uses in one day. Simple as recycling 1 can = 3 hours of TV, so in 2003 the U.S. saved enough energy by recycling cans to run 162 billion hours of TV, or about 25 hours of TV for every man, woman and child on Earth.” (Brennan)

“Americans disposed of 83 million tons of paper products in 2003. According to the EPA, by recycling nearly half of that, we saved 705 million trees and 290 billion gallons of fresh water.” (Brennan)

“The EPA estimates that 200 million gallons of used motor oil are improperly disposed of each year. Recycling used motor oil keeps it from polluting your ground and fresh water.”(Brennan)

“The National Recycling Coalition reports that recycling has created 1.1 million jobs, $236 billion in gross annual sales, and $37 billion in annual payroll.” (Brennan)

This information and numbers might be too boring to read, but if you take a minute and think about it in a larger scale. What is going to happen next if every single person keep wasting natural resources and pollute the environment with noticing or without noticing about their actions? It’s our environment, our planet, we are living on it and we are also destroying it (not the aliens) hour by hour, so don’t wait for anyone to save it because we are the only one can do it.

I found a peer-reviewed article, which talked about recycling paper, wrote by Trish Groves. Here is the link to this article. 

Actions

I already discussed the reasons why I’m doing this project, and why it matter to the environment, so now I will explain the detail action of what I’m going to do in the first week.

For my first R (reduce), I’m going to reduce using water by shutting it off while brushing my teeth. I know it might sound a little strange, but think about it. I brush my teeth twice a day, and 5 minutes each time, and about 2 minutes of brushing, so I can save up to 4 minutes of water running which equal about 8 gallons of water/day. I found a fun little clip, and you can click Use-Water-Wisely.aspx to watch.

For my second R (reuse), I will find my old papers which I used only one side of it, then turn back to the other side, and staple them all together. I’ll do a little design for the cover page to make it look nice, so I will have a “recreated” notebook to use. (I’ll add the picture of it when I’m done).

For the last R (recycle), I’m going to collect all of the water bottles/cans of soda and juice for a whole week, and then go to Fred Meyer and recycle them. I can also get some money from recycling bottles and cans.

Here is another video about recycling bottles.

Will it fit?

I think this project works the best for me because I’m a college student, I live on small budget, and so I don’t have much money to always buy new things. Moreover, doing this PSP project can help me live more sustainable, help the environment, and the most important thing is it’s not taking so much time or effort to do but has many benefits.

I feel so confident about what I’m going to do even though it may be out-of-order in a first couple days because I have to adapt to new habits, but I believe it will turn out fine, and we will see about that in the following week.

Here is another good peer-reviewed article that discussed strategies for water reuse

Make every day Earth day

Works cited:

Brennan, Jason. “Reasons Why You Should Recycle.” n. page. Web. 27 Jul. 2012. <http://www.affluentmagazine.com/articles/article/69/&gt;.

Groves, Trish. “Reduce, reuse, recycle .” 336(7650). (2008): n. page. Print. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2335226/&gt;.

Aerts, Peter, and Flora Tong. “Strategies for water reuse: membrane technologies increase the sustainability of industrial processes by enabling large-scale water reuse.” Chemical Engineering Sept. 2009: 34+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 July 2012.