February's Go Green Tip
Green Tip #2: Save Water In Your Home
Did you know that the average American uses about 100 gallons of water per day (The average in Europe is only about 50 gallons of water per day.) There are lots of ways that you can make small changes that can greatly reduce the amount of water you use on an average day!
How to Reduce Water Consumption
Turn off the tap. When you Brush your teeth, or wash your hands. Did you know this can save 6 litres of water per minute?!
Take a shorter shower. With showers using between 6 and 45 litres per minute you can save a LOT of water by cutting down on shower time.
Don’t run the dishwasher or washing machine until it’s full. Those half-loads add up to gallons and gallons of wasted water.
Fix your leaks! This one is an easy one, check your plumbing for leaks and repair them. (Places to Check: toilets, faucets and showerheads.) You may even want to consider upgrading to high-efficiency models.
Start participating in #MeatlessMonday. Switching to a vegetarian diet can shrink your food related water footprint by 36%. Now you don't need to go vegetarian full time but cooking even one meatless meal a week reduces your footprint!
Why to Reduce Water Consumption
97% of the world’s water is locked in seas and oceans, and this water is salt water and not all that useful for human use. The remaining 3% is freshwater, and 2% of that freshwater is frozen in the ice caps.
That means we depend on a very small amount of freshwater for ALL human uses. See, the thing is, we don't only drink that water. We use it to wash our clothes, to clean things, to bathe, and to produce nearly everything we consume.
Fresh water supplies are being used more quickly than ever before and rainfall is at record lows in many parts of the United States. Using some of these water-saving techniques means less water is diverted from our rivers, bays, and estuaries, which means we have less of an impact on the environment which helps to keep ecosystems healthy.