Why factories are bad

Water companies and water resources consultants can perform water audits to offer more detailed advice. On a smaller scale, low-flush toilets and water faucets with sensors can reduce the amount of potable water wasted in day-to-day operations.

Energy audits are the process of evaluating which equipment or procedures are using the highest levels of energy. This information is valuable, as it pinpoints the specific areas that can offer the most improvement. Once a factory locates the worst offenders, they have a starting point for making reductions in their energy consumption.

Energy audits can also lead to yearly savings on energy bills. The cost savings generated by energy-saving practices usually offset the investments companies make in implementing them.

Small-scale changes can include using more efficient light bulbs, changing to lights with sensors and updating or adding insulation. Overall, less energy usage can translate to a smaller carbon footprint. Aging equipment can waste energy by operating inefficiently. Not only will newer models reduce energy consumption, but time savings may also decrease product turnaround times or eliminate bottlenecks.

An energy audit will pinpoint the equipment and processes in need of the most improvement. Equipment releases a significant amount of waste heat energy. To take advantage of this wasted heat, factories can invest in cogeneration systems , which use the thermal energy produced by equipment to moderately heat water or heat spaces.

Instead of tossing scrap metal and waste material from products, evaluate them to see if and how your factory can reuse them in the manufacturing process. Sulfur dioxide, however, is a double-edged sword. While it contributes greatly to acid rain, its presence in the atmosphere helps cool the air to counteract the heating caused by carbon dioxide.

Another key air pollutant is ozone. Ozone is composed of three oxygen atoms, which is one more atom than needed for breathable oxygen. The third atom creates corrosive oxygen that can damage lungs. Although ozone is useful in the upper atmosphere where it blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun, it is harmful to human health when present in large quantities in the lower atmosphere.

Air pollution from factories and vehicles creates ground ozone problems, or smog, that presents significant health issues. Factories, particularly through the use of large industrial air conditioners, can also release destructive gases, contributing to the depletion of ozone in the upper atmosphere where it is needed.

A particular kind of factory called an animal factory, or a concentrated animal feeding operation CAFO , causes a great deal of air, land and water pollution. CAFOs are highly industrialized and used to produce meat or dairy products in large quantities. These factories produce gases like methane, ammonia and others that lower air quality and are harmful to health. The animal waste that CAFOs produce often ends up in the water table, contaminating streams and lakes with harmful bacteria like E.

The waste can also seep into groundwater through soil when it is then utilized in farm fields as fertilizer. Aside from animal waste from CAFO factories, industry also pollutes water sources directly through the dumping of pollutants into streams and lakes. In some countries, the dumping of hazardous waste is highly regulated, but this is not the case in much of the world.

The country is one of the biggest exporters of beef worldwide. Unsurprisingly, animal agriculture is considered to be one of the primary drivers of deforestation within this critical habitat and around the world. Freshwater is an increasingly precious resource, yet factory farms use plenty of it for their animals. A single dairy cow requires gallons of water each day, for both drinking and cleaning purposes, since the intensely crowded conditions on factory farms require a constant battle to be waged on the build-up of excrement.

The crops grown for animal feed are also thirsty. The soy, corn, and other grains typically used in animal feeds require up to 43 times more water than feed based on roughage, such as grass, or allowing animals to graze—something animals in factory farms are typically denied for their whole lives.

The vast tracts of land required for meat production, as well as the deluge of pollution and other impacts that are degrading ecosystems, threaten the existence of wildlife and a biologically diverse planet.

A study in found that land-use conversions for meat production were the primary driver of biodiversity loss. Lamb and cattle raised for beef require the most land of any proteins that humans consume, and thanks to surging demand for meat globally, wildlife habitats are being encroached upon at unprecedented rates.

Destroying habitat is a death sentence for the animals living there, many of which are already endangered species. Oceans are impacted by factory farming in numerous ways. Agricultural runoff pollutes oceanic habitats thanks to two sources: runoff from crops grown to feed factory-farmed animals which contain high levels of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and animal excrement from factory farms themselves.

Such runoff can cause algae blooms that lead to dead zones, upsetting entire ecosystems. Factory farms are also being directly immersed in the water. A form of aquaculture, which also includes farmed shellfish and seaweed, fish factory farms are concentrated animal feeding operations for species like salmon. These open-water cages, often located in relatively pristine and biodiverse areas of the ocean, produce pollution thanks to fish excrement and liberal use of antibiotics which are required to keep fish alive in these highly unnatural conditions.

Despite best efforts, however, factory-farmed fish frequently contract painful and often lethal diseases such as parasitic lice which can then contaminate adjacent wild populations of fish. Each year in Norway, an estimated 50, wild salmon succumb to lice infections. Factory farming is big business.