Ah, the drive-thru. Something that's as American as baseball and apple pie. I mean, who wouldn't love having the ability to pull up to Starbucks, get their caffeine fix, and go on their merry way, without having to leave the comfort of their car and interrupt their Red (Taylor's Version) jam session?
 |
| Photo by harry_nl on Foter |
Don't get me wrong, I love a good jam session as much as the next guy. The other day, I too was reaping the benefits of this wonderful American innovation. Like most people, I can't live without my caffeine fix for the day, so many times I find myself braving the swarm of coffee-lovers lining up at my local Starbucks everyday, sometimes waiting more than 10 minutes for my coffee, in my car, with the engine running, without doing anything productive.
Why I and so many others put up with this objective time-waster is another story- but as I was sitting there in my car I thought to myself - "man, I wonder how much I am destroying the environment right now just for my stupid iced americano (sorry, I like my coffee STRONG)?"
As I was getting ready for bed one night, I decided to do a little investigating- how much is my slight caffeine addiction wasting in gas, and by extension, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions?
What we are really getting at here is something that is apparently well-documented as a big waster of our precious environmental resources: Idling.
Idling is simply when you are sitting in your car, with the engine running, but not contributing to any productive activity. You are just literally just sitting there. This is such a wasteful activity that many (if not most) newer cars are equipped with the technology to cut the engine when stopped, say, at a stoplight, when in traffic, or when waiting for your Starbucks. But for those of us who aren't so lucky to be driving $35,000+, brand new cars, just how much are we wasting?
According to the US Department of Energy, 6 billion gallons of fuel each year are wasted idling. In terms of the environment, idling in personal vehicles alone contributes 30 million tons in CO2 emissions annually. If gas is $3.00/gal, this means we waste $18 billion
every year doing absolutely nothing. Reduced the unnecessary idling just
from personal vehicles would be the same as taking 5 million vehicles off the road each year (
US Department of Energy, 2015a).
Let's Get a Little More Granular
Let's think of a hypothetical scenario. I can't live without my morning coffee, so on my way to work, I
have to stop at Starbucks. Each day, I spend 10 minutes in the drive-thru line on average. I'm also a workaholic- I work each of the 261 working days in 2021 (and thus, I visit Starbucks 261 times per year). That's 43.5 hours I spend waiting in line each year. Depending on what car I drive, each hour of idling burns around
0.35 gallons of fuel, so I waste 43.5*0.35 = 15.23 gallons of fuel per year (not counting the idling to heat up my car in the winter)(US Department of Energy, 2015b). A gallon of fuel releases around
19.59 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere, so this unproductive idling increases my carbon footprint by 19.59*15.23 = 298 pounds of CO2 per year (EPAc).
This scenario is perhaps unrealistic (perhaps not?), but it illustrates the problem at hand. Between Starbucks runs, fast-food pit stops, sending that text before you start driving, and "warming up your car" in the winter, it is clear that this idling can quickly add up. And as you'll see below, it is pretty much on par with the estimated cumulative impact of reducing unnecessary idling.
The Cumulative Impact
I'm not going to sit here and act like reducing idling is the end-all-be-all of CO2 emissions reductions. 298 pounds is a relatively small amount considering the average vehicle releases
5.07 tons of CO2 annually (EPA,b). Idling under this scenario comprises 2.94% of my hypothetical carbon emissions. However, if we all reduce our unnecessary personal vehicle idling, it would spare
5 million cars*
5.07 tons = 25.35 million
tons of CO2 per year (US Department of Energy, a; EPA,b).
Even the cumulative impact is not earth-shattering (it corresponds to about a 2.12% reduction in US personal-automobile greenhouse gas emissions), but reducing your idle-time is just
one of many simple ways you can reduce your transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions (
EPAa, author's calculations). While 2.12% is not a massive number, it's by no means trivial either. 2.12% here, 3.4% there, and pretty soon we are making a
big impact. Since idling (under these calculations) is completely unnecessary and avoidable (you're not moving forward, you're not going
anywhere, and you're not sitting at a stoplight), idling is one of the easiest ways to reduce your carbon footprint. The Government of Canada (
2016) says so, too (and they have free health care, so good luck arguing with that)!
What Can You Do?
Next time you plan to go through the drive through, just don't! Parking your car and going inside to get your coffee or food reduces your idling time. If you don't want to interrupt your jam sesh, just pop in your headphones and head inside, without skipping a beat!
Instead of going to Starbucks everyday, just brew your coffee at home! Not only is this good on your wallet, it reduces your idle time, and prevents one more single-use cup from ending up in a landfill.
I know winter in Ohio is cold, but perhaps skip on letting your engine run for 10 minutes before getting in the car. Bundle up and use your own bodily internal heating system- it is much greener than the one in your car!
Thus, I challenge you to be mindful of how idling is bad for the environment, and I hope this article has convinced you to think twice when leaving the engine running. Just think- with how things are now, 2.12% of our personal transportation related emissions come from going nowhere.
Sources:
Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d. c). Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. EPA. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#transportation
Government of Canada. (2016, September 20). Emission impacts resulting from vehicle idling. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/communities-infrastructure/transportation/cars-light-trucks/idling/4415
US Department of Energy. (2015a). Idling reduction for personal vehicles - energy. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/idling_personal_vehicles.pdf
US Department of Energy. (2015b). Fact #861 February 23, 2015 idle fuel consumption for selected gasoline and diesel vehicles. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-861-february-23-2015-idle-fuel-consumption-selected-gasoline-and-diesel-vehicles
Thank you very much Zane, you just completely ruined Starbucks drive through for me! Jokes apart, I enjoyed the read. Really puts things into perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks Arijit. Yes, it is pretty crazy!
Delete