Water usage is often overlooked when considering how to make your lifestyle more sustainable, however, reducing your water usage can save you a considerable amount of money and resources. In 2019, Austin American Statesman published an article that found that the average Austin resident consumed about 120 gallons of water per day. Reducing your daily water usage starts with mindfulness. Taking a little bit of extra time to become mindful of your water habits will allow you to make the most of your water-saving abilities.
Included below is a water footprint calculator, which helps you analyze your water usage.
https://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/personal-water-footprint-calculator/
Sometimes it can be hard to put those statistics into practice, so here are some simple but effective ways to reduce your household water usage!
Bathroom
According to Statista, bathrooms take up the largest percentage of water usage in the average household. So, reducing your water usage in the bathroom is the most cost-effective way to reduce your impact. Here are three tips to help you save water.
- Turning off the Tap while brushing your teeth- sinks use 1.5 gallons of water per minute, so turning them off while brushing your teeth can save A LOT of water!
- Skip the baths and stick to showers- an average shower uses 25 gallons of water, whereas a bath uses around 75 gallons of water.
- Install water-saving devices in your toilet and shower- Here are two affordable options to reduce your water use for your bathroom:
(sold on Amazon for $7.99) (sold on Amazon for $9.99)
Alternatively to the “Toilet Bank”, you can fill a plastic water bottle with water, or brick and drop it in your toilet to displace the amount of water being used.
Kitchen
One of the most helpful tips for reducing water consumption in the Kitchen is being mindful of what goes down the drain. All the water (and other liquids/materials) that goes down the drain, is sent to a water treatment facility to be cleaned and used again. Therefore, it is best for the treatment facility, and our bodies to try and limit it to only water being poured down the drain.
- Don’t dispose of medicines, paints, or any other pollutants down the drain- although it may be a liquid, it shouldn’t go into our water systems.
- Scrape your plate- Before washing your dishes, either scrape your plate leftovers into the trash or a composite bin if possible.
- Dishwasher over hand washing- Hand washing can use up to 27 gallons of water, whereas a dishwasher uses around 3 gallons of water per load.
- Plug the sink- If you don’t have a dishwasher, just plug the sink before you wash your dishes. You can use this water to soak the dirty dishes and save a lot of water.
- Thaw food in the refrigerator- Although we have all been in a pinch to thaw meat by running the faucet over frozen goods, it will save gallons of water if you can remember to thaw your meat in the fridge the night before.
Lifestyle
Lastly, here are a few lifestyle tips that might help you reduce your water usage!
- Purchase eco-friendly cleaning products- Switch to bar soap products. Bar soap has a carbon footprint far less than bottled soap because of the water used to make bottle soap. Bar soap typically has more eco-friendly packaging than the average plastic bottle of liquid soap. Also, avoid using products that contain phosphate.
- Eat less Beef- although eating less meat is sustainable in so many ways, it also helps reduce your individual water consumption. Beef is the most water-intensive meat and uses 15,000 liters of water for 1 kg of meat.
- Switch from Coffee to Tea- a cup of coffee uses 140 liters of water, whereas a cup of tea only uses 34 liters of water. The average cup of coffee has 95mg of caffeine in it, but Yerba Mate tea has 85 mg of caffeine in it, and it has numerous health benefits that coffee does not have.
Hopefully some of these tips will inspire mindfulness, which will allow you to save money and water! Be the change you want to make for our planet and your pocket.
Make sure to tweet us @envirojunkiess and share with us what you think about reducing your water usage!
Citations:
https://www.epa.gov/watersense/start-saving
https://www.thespruce.com/water-saving-devices-instayourselfll–4096495