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Scientists Calculate Carbon Emissions of Your Sandwich (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: It's a staple of the British diet and a popular choice for a quick and easy lunch. But new research reveals the carbon footprint of the humble sandwich could be fuelling harmful greenhouse emissions. The worst offender is revealed as the ready-made "all-day breakfast" sandwich, crammed with egg, bacon and sausage. Researchers at the University of Manchester carried out the first ever study of the carbon footprint of sandwiches -- both home-made and ready-made. They considered the entire life cycle of sandwiches, including the production of ingredients, packaging, refrigeration and food waste. The team scrutinised 40 different sandwich types, recipes and combinations and found the highest carbon footprints for the sandwiches containing pork meat (bacon, ham or sausages) and also those filled with cheese or prawns. The researchers estimate that a ready-made (and highly calorific) all-day breakfast sandwich generates 1441g of carbon dioxide equivalent -- equal to the emissions created by driving a car for 12 miles (19km).

3 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Good grief by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    This should be titled from the "We-Are-Voluntarily-Giving-Up-Our-Credibility" department.

    Living things on this planet breathe. They exhale. Sometimes we humans kill and eat them.

    If all those animals were left alive, breathing out CO2, farting methane, eating up all the good grass and taking the jobs of other animals whose consumption have fallen out of popularity, their carbon footprint would be even worse.

    Save the environment - stop eating plants that absorb CO2 and eat more meat.

    1. Re:Good grief by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Whether you eat plants, or animals, you're merely eating a link in the carbon cycle."
      Well, if I'm eating links, they might as well be pork sausage links.

  2. Re:wha? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

    I want to know. If I feed a horse my ready made breakfast sandwich, how many miles can he trot on the calories from that breakfast sandwich? (carrying me of course).

    What if I convert my sandwich to biodiesel? How far can my car travel with that? Would it be more efficient to feed my car breakfast sandwiches than diesel?

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch