Simple Water Saving Tips
It has been a HOT summer so far! And dry!
Many of us are wondering how we can help conserve our precious water supply, and the truth is, there are so many ways! They may not seem like they're too small to make a difference, but here are a few numbers for inspiration.
Depending on the manufacturing date, it takes anywhere between 11-38 litres to run a dishwasher. Dishwashers don't tend to notice whether they're full or not, and use the same amount of water no matter how many dishes are inside. Ensuring your dishwasher is full each time you run it not only saves water, it saves you money!
Garburators are a handy way to get rid of kitchen scraps, but they unfortunately need water run every time they're used, and for about 15-30 seconds after each use in order to ensure all the debris is flushed through the main drain line. This uses approximately 3.8-7.6 litres every time you want to dispose of something, which could be multiple times a day. Compost is a great way to avoid this water waste, create nutrient-rich soil, and so easy now that curbside pickup is an option for many of us. If you don't have curbside pickup, there are several tutorials on composting online, you could feed it to your chickens or ask neighbours/farms with animals if they could use it, or call Earth Warriors for pickup.
Showers are a major consumer of water, letting anywhere between 45-150 litres of water go down the drain for just an 8 minute shower (depending on your shower head). That's a lot of water! One obvious way to reduce this amount is to reduce the amount of showers we take (many of us in North America tend to lean into a bit of a hyper-clean mentality and could probably relax a wee bit). But if that's too much for your comfort level, simply shutting the water off while you lather up is a great way to conserve gallons of water in one go!
Letting the tap run, whether you're scrubbing a pot, brushing your teeth/shaving, or washing veggies uses anywhere from 8-10 litres of water per minute. Individually, each action can waste hundreds of litres of water each month. But add each action, then multiply it by each member of the house, and that number may run into the thousands. A super easy solution is to just turn off the tap when you don't need the water. Actively brushing? Tap off. Rinsing? Tap on! Filling a bowl with water to giving your veggies a rinse can also save gallons, and it has the added benefit of being water you can use on your own plants.
And last, but certainly not least... the toilet. If you happen to still have a pre-80's toilet in your house, it's using up to 30 litres of water each and every time you flush. Modern, High Efficiency toilets have cut that number down substantially, and use only 3-4.8L per flush. Still, in a family of 4 flushing an average of 5 times a day, it can add up to over 35,000 litres literally going down the toilet every year, even with an HE version (the number jumps to 138,000 with a toilet from the early 90's). Of course, we need to flush. But have you ever heard the phrase "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down"? This is by far the easiest way to conserve water because you don't have to do anything! Just flush whenever something really needs to go down and when there's a risk of clogging. And if you have an older toilet and are able to upgrade, it's a great idea!
One final idea, if you really want to up your game, is to invest in a rainwater collection tank. There are several places in the Valley offering this option, and it's a wonderful way to collect water when it's raining so you have some when it's not.
So those are just a few little things you can do every day to help conserve water. May not seem like much, but small acts x many people = BIG change!