On Saving Water This Time
After nearly completing a series of articles on living green Los Angeles, we suddenly realized that nothing much had been written about saving water! The immediate thought was “rush to the Ultimate Cheapskate” (Yahoo Green) he knows how to get bang for your bucks as well as conserve resources and recycle. What shocked and surprised the most, was learning that the plastic carnage created by manufacturing individual water bottles in the USA, uses enough oil to power over 100,000 cars for one year! One year’s worth of drinking water from the tap, perfectly safe it is, costs 49c, while the same amount of bottled water costs $1,000… WOW!
Savings Start at Home
Home is where the heart is, and it is also where we as individuals start making a difference to our bank balance as well as the balance of nature. Most homes use the most water inside the house where there are some obvious choices to be made; such as repairing or replacing water-wasting fixtures with widgets and other state-of-the-art items – start with the showerhead. Fix leaky faucets or replace with more modern models. Fix leaking toilets or replace with “low-flow” types; stick a brick or a water-filled plastic soda bottle in the tank of older toilets to limit excess water use. Electricity and water supplies are linked, so the less electricity used, the less water is used and vice versa.
If cold water is precious, hot water is even more precious, we know that showering is more water economical than bathing; let’s make it even more economical and be sure to shower with a friend. It’s much more fun, and two of you get clean for the price of one. Bath water, or shower water – if it is trapped, can be used to water the garden, to fill up toilet tanks, sluice tile floors or even bathe the dog – just give them a final fresh rinse with water from a container, and add a little vinegar to that final rinse to help keep away doggie pests. Washing the car with a bucket saves loads of water; use the bath water for that too, and just like the dog, give the car a final fresh water rinse before drying – do people still wash their own cars?
Approximately 15% of home heating costs goes for domestic water use – through better conservation, this cost can be cut in half. Simple to use energy saving devices are available to help with this. Use the washing machine on a cold setting, or at least set to “warm” and not hot – these appliances are also built with water level settings today use the setting to help control water consumption.
Do clothes really need to be washed that often? I just read that a spritz with vodka is like giving them a dry clean. Spritz some vodka into your hair while cleaning your clothes to make it grow healthy and lush - another spritz in the mouth and there will be no feelings of guilt about not washing clothes more often.
For more savings upstream and even better for your health; skip eating meat once or more a week – meat is far more water intensive to have delivered to the table. Your pocket will thank you - say nothing of the cow!
Never take water for granted, there over a billion people around the world with little or no access to clean drinking water, while our cups overflow. Donate to Drop in the Bucket, every coin we drop helps their buckets overflow.