Water is the fabric of our lives, and essential for our well-being. In our opinion, World Water Day is about acknowledging water and its importance and necessity on our planet! It’s also about climate change and its correlation to water conservation. This important and internationally-recognized holiday was established by the United Nations in 1992.
Here are a few facts about water from the Environmental Protection Agency.
- The average American household uses about 88 gallons of water a day.
- Annually, about 900 billion gallons of water is wasted due to households.
- Outdoor water use accounts for 30% of household water usage.
As we observe World Water Day, you can contribute to the environment by adjusting your water usage. This is something that everyone should do. You can do your part at home by simply making tweaks to your normal routines. Here are five small lifestyle tweaks you can start using right now to conserve water, which in the long run preserves our environment.
5 Ways You Can Conserve Water
1. Decrease Your Shower Time
Listening to your favorite tunes while you sing and dance along can turn your 15-minute shower into an hour, easily. According to the EPA, if you have a regular shower head, you’re using about 2.5 gallons of water a minute. For an hour shower, that’s more than 100 gallons of water! Try cutting down your shower time to 5 minutes (ideal) to use fewer gallons.
2. Try Reusable Water Bottles
It’s quick to grab a bottle of water while you’re out running errands, but plastic is often seen in oceans as a result of littering. The plastic can also cause danger as sometimes the chemicals from the bottle can end up in your water! Try to make use of a reusable water bottle. You can fill it up at home and take it with you wherever you go.
3. Don’t Let Dish Water Run
When washing dishes, some people like to keep the water running to rinse off a dish once cleaned. This can waste a ton of water even when you don’t realize it. Instead, try putting the dishes and silverware aside, fill the up sink with soapy water and wash each dish in the water and then wipe to dry. If you have a double sink, fill one side up with soapy water and the other side with plain water, that way you can wash and rinse without leaving the faucet running.
4. Reuse Water
When cooking your favorite pasta dish or tasty veggies, you typically boil water for pasta and blanch the vegetables to get rid of any dirt. Water from pasta, veggie blanching, and dishwashing, can all be used to water plants (of course if the dishwater isn’t too dirty with chemicals). You can also use your veggie water for mopping the floor.
5. Turn Off The Water While Brushing Your Teeth
It’s convenient for you to keep the faucet running while brushing your teeth, but it’s better for our environment if you turn it off. It doesn’t take too much water to brush your teeth, so if you leave the water running while brushing, you’re using more than needed. Pour some water in a cup and use that to rinse when needed and to also clean your toothbrush.
These tips are to start using right now, not just on World Water Day. A little bit goes a long way, especially with water usage. Being conscious of these suggestions and working on adding them to your routine every day can not only help save the environment, but you’ll also save money on your water bill.
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