Ways To Be More Green With Your Water Usage….
1. Drip Drip Drip
Dripping faucets can waste gallons and gallons of water every day. A leaky toilet can use 90,000 gallons of water in a month. You solve this by changing the washers on your sinks and showers, or get new washer-less faucets. Of course, the easiest and cheapest way to start saving water is to properly maintain your sinks, showers, etc.
2. Good water habits
Try to stay aware of this precious resource disappearing while brushing your teeth or shaving and always wash laundry and dishes with full loads. When washing dishes by hand, fill up the sink and turn off the water. Take shorter showers or, if you have good friends, shower with a friend. To put things in perspective, take a quick look at your next water bill when it arrives. It probably won’t be costing you too much, but the average household consumes multiple thousands of gallons each month. See if you can make this number go down.
3. Stay off the bottle
Bottled water sucks. In most first-world countries, the tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. Water tests have shown in many municipalities, tap water is actually better than bottled water. Bottled water is not as well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly pure. Most bottled water doesn’t come from an “Artesian spring” and is just tap water anyhow. Coca Cola is known for adding salt to Dasani bottled water so now you get salt from water not just the local fast food restaurant. Reasons to avoid Bottled water are because it is even more expensive per gallon than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint from its transportation, and the discarded bottles do not decompose. If you want to carry your water with you, get a filtered water bottle and fill it up as you go. Having a filter built into your water bottle will allow you to re-use the bottle and get great taste for free! If your water at home tastes funny, don’t worry cause your filtered water bottle will remove the bad taste, bad odor, and chlorine chemicals.
4. Harvest your rainwater
Put a rain barrel on your downspouts and use this water for irrigation. Rain cisterns come in all shapes and sizes ranging from large underground systems to smaller, freestanding ones.
5. At the car wash
Car washes are often more efficient than home washing and treat their water rather than letting it straight into the sewer system. But check to make sure that they clean and recycle the water.
6. Keep your eyes open
Report broken pipes, open hydrants, and excessive waste. Don’t be shy about pointing out leaks to your friends and family members, either. They might have tuned out the dripping sound a long time ago.
7. Don’t spike the punch
Water sources have to be protected. In many closed loop systems like those in cities around the Great Lakes, waste water is returned to the Lake that fresh water comes out of. Don’t pour chemicals down drains, or flush drugs down toilets; it could come back in diluted form in your water.
