| If you have ever had to get rid of a used spa cover, | | | | tenth the size required for a foam cover. So then if |
| it probably dawned on you that it wasn't easy. | | | | an air filled cover were on every spa in America and |
| Multiply that by the roughly ten million households | | | | it lasted seven years (some out there that are still in |
| that own spas in the USA and it should give us all | | | | use after ten) we would be creating one point four |
| pause to think. | | | | million cubic feet of waste per year. That's about |
| Think of it this way... If there are over 10 million spa | | | | fifty three thousand cubic yards per year. Still |
| owners in the USA alone and each one of them uses | | | | significant but it would take seventy five years to |
| a rigid foam spa cover on their spa, two inches thick | | | | make a pile as big as the Great Pyramid. |
| that would equal about 10.666 cubic feet of foam per | | | | This doesn't address the environmental cost of |
| spa cover. We'll say 10.5 cubic feet per cover. If each | | | | transportation. If a good size semi truck trailer can |
| cover on every spa becomes saturated within two | | | | haul 2000 cubic feet and you could stuff every nook |
| years and needs to be replaced that would mean | | | | and cranny with a foam filled spa cover the best you |
| that we would be adding 52.5 million cubic feet of | | | | could get would be about 188 covers per semi trailer |
| waste to our landfills in just spa covers every year. If | | | | (Again, these numbers are based on two inch foam. |
| there are two and a half covers worth of foam to | | | | If every spa owner in America is using a tapered |
| make up one cubic yard that translates to 4 million | | | | cover, or a three or four inch cover these figures |
| cubic yards of waste added to our land fills every | | | | could easily double). That means transporting the |
| two years just in spa covers. | | | | before mentioned foam filled covers would take |
| Considering there are eleven million cubic yards of | | | | around fifty five thousand semi truck trailers. |
| stone in the Great Pyramid at Giza, we are putting | | | | Compare this to a mere five thousand to haul the |
| that much foam in our landfills every six years. There | | | | same amount of inflatable spa covers. Imagine fifty |
| are four and a half million cubic yards of concrete in | | | | thousand fewer truck trailers on the road. Talk about |
| Hoover Dam. Consider Hoover Dam, seven hundred | | | | a savings in transportation cost. You should double |
| twenty six feet tall, over twelve hundred feet wide, | | | | that number of truck trailers because they would also |
| six hundred sixty thick at the bottom and forty five | | | | be hauling more covers to dealers so you could |
| thick at the top. We could build a two lane highway | | | | replace your old one. That would be about one |
| of discarded foam filled spa covers from Seattle | | | | hundred ten thousand semi trailers on the road |
| Washington to Miami Florida every two years. If we | | | | verses ten thousand total to haul the inflatable spa |
| used four inch thick covers we could make that a | | | | cover to market and land fill. Of course if the air |
| four lane Highway. And it would accumulate again | | | | cover lasts longer that would mean about 714 semi |
| every two years. For the sake of demonstration lets | | | | truck trailers per year compared to 55,000 loaded |
| use two inches thick. If we ripped the covers in half | | | | trailers per year of foam covers to cover the same |
| and laid those pieces end to end we could circle the | | | | number of spas. Imagine the savings in fuel for those |
| earth at the equator on used spa covers every two | | | | trucks. |
| years. Remember we are using two inch foam | | | | So a stack of wasted foam covers as large as the |
| covers, if you use a four inch foam cover these | | | | Great Pyramid every two years or a pile of inflatable |
| numbers double. Heck with parking lots, in a few | | | | spa covers the same size in seventy five years. |
| years we could pave the entire planet with foam just | | | | 54,286 fewer semi truck trailers on the road per |
| from saturated foam spa covers from the USA | | | | year. Using a spa cover that requires one tenth the |
| alone. In the words of Homer Simpson, "Doh!"!" Is | | | | energy to keep the spa water warm... Personally I |
| there any hope out there? | | | | would prefer air cover pile that big. I'd have my |
| Well yes there is actually, and you don't have to quit | | | | picture taken in front of it. I'll only be in my mid one |
| using your spa to save us. You just need to get an | | | | hundred twenties in seventy five years so I may |
| air filled spa cover and tell every other spa owner | | | | require a few replacement parts myself by then. |
| you know to buy one instead of a rigid foam filled | | | | 10,000,000 spas using one tenth the energy to keep |
| spa cover. The air filled spa cover does a better job | | | | the water warm. If it cost $50 per year (I wish) to |
| than any rigid foam cover and it lasts years longer on | | | | heat those 10,000,000 spas and the air filled cover |
| average. But at the end of that long and useful life, | | | | saved 90 percent of that by being ten times better |
| discarding of an old air filled spa cover is considerably | | | | than a foam filled cover that would be an energy |
| less impact on the environment. A typical air filled spa | | | | savings of 450,000,000 dollars per year. Your actual |
| cover for an eight foot by eight foot spa can be | | | | saving may vary. |
| compacted into one cubic foot of space. That's one | | | | |