Earth Week 2012 Challenges: Waste Less Water

Day 7: Earth Week Challenge -- Waste Less Water

From April 16-22, HuffPost Green has invited you to take on one simple endeavor per day to reduce your impact on the planet. We can't extend a challenge without attempting it ourselves, so our team has tackled each goal as well and shared with you the highs and lows of our experiences. Check out how our team did on past challenges as we ate meatless, powered down, used reusable bottles, went paper-free, packed a lunch and wore second-hand clothes.

FINAL CHALLENGE: Waste Less Water. Take shorter showers, turn the faucet off while brushing teeth, do only full loads of dishes and laundry.

The EPA provides a list of many ways that we can all conserve water. According to the organization, "Toilets, showers, and faucets combined represent two-thirds of all indoor water use. More than 4.8 billion gallons of water is flushed down toilets each day in the United States. The average American uses about 9,000 gallons of water to flush 230 gallons of waste down the toilet per year (Jensen, 1991)." They recommend installing low-flow shower heads and low-flush toilets (or place a container filled with water in your toilet tank).

Lawncare is another source of major water waste. According to the EPA, it accounts for over 30 percent of residential outdoor water use. Try using plants that need little water, grouping plants with similar water needs, or try cycle irrigation methods.

In the kitchen, run your dishwasher only when full to save up to 20 gallons of water per day. If washing by hand, let them soak in the sink first. In the bathroom, turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or shaving, and take shorter showers. Check out the EPA's website for more tips.

Sasha: Years of living with roommates has made me the king of fast showers -- a necessary skill if you're going to avoid using up all the hot water and keeping everyone from getting out of the house on time. An environmentally conscious roommate of mine in college cut his water usage down even further by wearing the same t-shirt and pants most of the time, and washing them in the sink every so often. I haven't gone to such lengths, but his habits did make me realize that you can wear the same clothes over and over again, and almost no one will notice. (Don't believe me? Try taking the Six Items or Less challenge yourself and see.) There is one bad water-usage habit that I have though, and I'm vowing now to stop it: When I brush my teeth, I let the faucet run while I cup my hands to rinse the toothpaste out of my mouth. The better, more efficient thing to do would be to pour a glass of water and use that to rinse.

Jess: Since a dishwasher can't really fit in my tiny uptown apartment, I am forced to wash dishes by hand. This is where my evil non-green twin takes over, because turning on-and-off the water in between each dish is such a pain. Instead of leaving on the tap for 30 minutes or so, I put all the dishes to soak in a tub with the minimum amount of water and soap. I just used a small stream to wash them off afterwards, saving water and keeping my hands less pruney!

Joanna: I'm really bad about spacing out in the shower. I'll refocus and realize I've just been standing there under the stream of hot water doing absolutely nothing for a shockingly long period of time. Today, I made a concerted effort to just go in, get the job done, and get out. It wasn't quite as relaxing, but I have plenty of dry land where I can space out if need be.

James: I set a timer on my phone before I got in the shower this morning so I would know not to shower for too long. I always turn off the water when I'm brushing my teeth anyways, but I spent the day being more conscious about the water that I was using.

Becca: I read somewhere that shortening your shower by only a minute or two can save up to 150 gallons a month. I definitely spend a minute or two in the shower every morning, just standing blearily, trying to wake myself up. Next time, I'll get my coffee before my shower, and cut down on my shower time.

How did you do with this #EarthWeekGoal? Tweet us your experience and check out the twitter slideshow below to read about other challenge participant experiences:

Check out this photo of us turning off the water:

From our partners

• How Two Determined Sisters Set Up A Pet Rescue Pipeline To Colorado - Mother Nature Network
• Panel Finds Flaws In Hurricane Sandy Warning System - Climate Central
• 11 Images And Facts About A Misunderstood Creature - Mother Nature Network

Comments

[WonderingNThinking]

04:13 AM on 05/13/2012

Water that is wasted is not just a waste of water. There are the chemicals and energy used to treat the water and pump it to your tap. If it goes down the drain, then there are the chemicals and energy to pump and treat this wastewater.

[Kenz300]

09:50 AM on 04/23/2012

Wasting food, water or energy wastes money.

[cazelwilson96]

11:37 PM on 04/22/2012

During the recession, my Grandparents had indoor plumbing, but didn't flush but once daily. My Dad and his sibs recall how it smelled and how they'd get into trouble with a tree switch IF they did flush it. Which occurred more times than Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Bessie would have liked.

[oil patch]

08:32 PM on 04/22/2012

hold on, had to turn my faucets on then come back....Green Nazis are here folks, I have warned you all...they will start a "Green Final Solution" killing millions who do not believe the almightly al gore & bill maher

[WonderingNThinking]

04:10 AM on 05/13/2012

Opposite of what he said.

[dtroppy]

06:58 PM on 04/22/2012

My rule of thumb is not to flush every time I pee.... now that's just wasteful....

[Cheapfoody]

02:50 PM on 04/23/2012

Pee during your daily shower and save ...

[WonderingNThinking]

04:07 AM on 05/13/2012

I really like the toilets that they're starting to bring here, with a small button (small amount of water) for flushing #1 and a large button (more water) for flushing #2. They've had them in Europe for a long time. Wish they were the mainstream toilet here.

[El Justiciero]

03:22 PM on 04/22/2012

We filled milk jugs with water and put 'em in the toilet tanks, converting them to low-flow toilets. I haven't noticed a single difference in performance, other than our water bill being reduced.
We also save a lot of water when washing vegetables or cooking so we can water plants with it later.

[WonderingNThinking]

04:09 AM on 05/13/2012

When water needs to be dumped, like from the dog dish, it goes to watering my plants. When I don't finish a glass of water, it goes into the dog dish.

[El Justiciero]

03:17 PM on 05/13/2012

I need to be better about that. It's just a matter of mindfullness!

[Linda from Deerfield]

11:52 AM on 04/22/2012

This past year, we installed retrofit dual flush kits -- they work great and the water savings is notable. Hot water pipe insulation also helped us waste less water. Rain barrels provide almost all of the water for house plants and minimal garden watering. When the old garbage disposal died, we switched to a regular drain -- all of our vegetable scraps go into the scrap bucket and then on to the compost pile for the vegetable garden. Our 25-year-old dish washer died, and I struggled with whether to replace it, but I have seen people try to use less water by hand washing than the latest efficient ones and they could not do it.

My town has an earth day electronics and cfl bulb recycling event that I'll take a couple things to, but I would have done that anyway.

[Kenz300]

11:37 AM on 04/22/2012

We need to balance population with resources of food, water, energy and jobs.

[Cheapfoody]

02:49 PM on 04/23/2012

K - what would you suggest - forced contraception, or pehaps we can simply taint the water supplies of third world countries with the "morning after" pill ingredients?