New ways to save water! I love that using the dish washer is on there… most people think that doing it in the sink is faster and better. But, think of all the water that is being wasted just running over the dish while you wash!
your blacksburg backyard
adventures for hokies that are nice to the environment and so much more
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The impact that our water use has is incredible. If only 2.5% of the Earth is fresh water, conservation should be demanded (rather than implied as it is in this posting). I agree with you that using dishwashers is better than using sinks. Then we only need to keep heat-saving options in mind so that we don’t impede on the energy grid as well!
I had no clue there was so little consumable freshwater. My roommates and I are very big into conserving water, but it has mostly been to reduce our bills. This will definitely have me thinking about conserving for other reasons. As Americans, we tend to be wasteful because we can be, but it doesn’t take that much of a lifestyle change to cut back on the amount of water we use. Turning off the water when you’re not actually using it and only washing full loads in the dishwasher and washing machine are big ones.
I had no idea I was using so much water! I now make a conscious effort to turn off the water when I brush my teeth and when I am showering I set a timer to go off after five minutes so I don’t waste water.
Reblogged this on Samantha Maynard .
I had no idea I was using so much water! I now make a conscious effort to turn off the water when I brush my teeth and when I am showering I set a timer to go off after five minutes so I don’t waste water.
Cool infographic! It showed very practicable and doable ways to reduce water use if only people would make a greater conscious effort to do so. I was surprised to learn that more water is saved by running the dishwasher. However, on second thought, this makes a lot of sense since a lot of needless water is used in a similar way as when you leave your tap on when brushing your teeth.
Also, a few months ago one of the toilets in my apartment had a leak that we were unaware of until we got the bill – it was three times more than we normally paid. If the financial cost of a leaky toilet increased by that much, I can only imagine how much water was wasted during that time.
I think we have gotten very used to water being so abundant that we often don’t even think about conserving it. Things like doing laundry and using the dishwasher use so much water, but it’s easy to forget just how much. I think this post is a good reminder of just how much we use. Personally, I think I’m pretty good about not wasting water. I always use recyclable bottles and I wait as long as possible before running the dishwasher or the washing machine. However, I’m definitely guilty of taking the occasional over-long shower, so I could do my part by cutting down on the length of my showers.
23 liters for an average African family compared with 570 for just a single person in the USA! It highlights how different our lifestyles are from theirs…so interesting, and I doubt that the average American is any happier than the average African, but we have such an abundance of resources.
This chart was really helpful and made me realize that I can conserve more water than I already do. I always thought that using the dishwasher wastes more water, so it was really interesting to see that it can result in up to 11 times less water use. Also, my roommates and I had maintenance come to our apartment to fix and possible leaks in our toilets to conserve our water use. Hopefully my roommates and I will continue to think of more ways that we can save water!
Thanks for posting this! It is crazy to think about how much water Americans waste by doing silly things like washing one shirt and a pair of jeans in the washing machine or being too lazy to fix a minor leak while people in other countries don’t even have a glass of clean water to drink. It’s quite sad actually. About 5 years ago, my family got a high-efficiency washing machine and it makes me feel like I’m doing better for the environment because it gives us the option of “quick load” so if we do have a smaller load to do, it will do it in less time and with less water. I never knew that using a dishwasher was actually more sustainable than washing by hand though. Interesting!
I was shocked to read this blog post; however, it was so informative and resourceful! I did not know that 1.1 billion people go without clean water, and that children in Africa frequently die from sanitary disease from the water. All of my roommates are good at taking quick showers, except for me. I will do my part to cut my shower time in half, in order to save water.