Water Waste Use

Picture courtesy of Associated Content

Let's talk water reduction, shall we?

Think you're already saving water? There are many places in your daily routine where you can reduce even more the amount of water you use in order to conserve our precious and limited resource.

This chart, from the Southern Nevada Water Authority, shows the amount of water used indoors in residences:


You can see that toilets, washing machines, and showers take up most of the chart.

Starting at the beginning of the day, when you hop in the shower, try and stay in only a few minutes, or at least cut down the amount of time you spend in the shower. Estimates show that even a one-or-two-minute reduction can save up to 700 gallons per month! You can also purchase a low-flow shower head to reduce the amount of water used each time you shower. Oh, and for those of you who prefer baths to showers? You use 15-25 gallons of hot water for a bath, but less than 10 gallons during a 5-minute shower. And with a low-flow shower head, it's even less.

Another thing you can buy that has low-flow options is a toilet. Or, if you're not ready to replace the one you've got, you can simply put a brick or full gallon jug of water into the tank in order to keep the tank from filling completely with water. In Elizabeth Roger's and Thomas M. Kostigen's The Green Book, they state that one flush equals about 4.5 gallons of water, which is equivalent to the amount of water "the average person in Africa uses for a whole day of drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning." Think about that the next time you flush!

Something else you can do when it comes to using the facilities is to remember the old adage "If it's yellow, let it mellow." Sounds gross, I know, but think about how often you flush when there is simply a tiny bit of pee in the toilet. I'm sure you can think of times when it's pretty unnecessary.

As for washing clothes, I'm not suggesting you find the nearest river and beat your shirts and pants on a rock, but there are still ways to conserve water in the laundry room. Only wash full loads, for one. If you wash a bunch of small loads, you're wasting a lot more water and energy with all those extra wash and rinse cycles than if you save up and do one big one. (Plus, wash the clothes in cold water, and you'll save even more energy. Most detergents nowadays work really well in cold water.) It's also time to rethink how often you need to wash articles of clothing. Sure, underwear and socks need to be washed every time they're worn (although some people claim otherwise). But what about that shirt that you wore with an undershirt underneath? It barely touched your skin, do you really need to launder it? Try getting at least a couple of wearings out of each article of clothing, and you'll reduce your water use even more. Plus, you'll spend less time doing laundry, so it's win-win.

Another appliance to use only when full is the dishwasher. This reduces water consumption as well, even more than washing dishes by hand.

Just changing little parts of your daily routine can add up to a saving a lot of water. Try to be a little more mindful of how you use and waste water, and you'll see you can save in many areas of your home and life.

Phasing Out Plastic

Photo from The Soft Landing

The chemical bishphenol A (BPA) is known to act like a female sex hormone, and is linked to prostate and breast cancer, higher rates of miscarriage, immune system dysfunction, testicular abnormalities in boys and puberty in girls younger than eight years old. ( Source: Environmental Working Group )

Enviroblog states, "It's a hormone disruptor that can be found in almost everybody, and animal studies have linked it to breast and prostate cancer, and infertility."

Why should we care? Because it's in many of the plastics we use every day. Yikes!

It's said that many of the plastics we use, such as water bottles and baby bottles, as well as plastic liners in cans, are leaching this lovely chemical into our food and water, especially when they are heated.

So what can we do?

Well, to start, we can stop heating our food in plastic containers when we stick it in the microwave. We can look for alternative water containers (many suggest Kleen Kanteen and the like, but there are plenty of less expensive alternatives, like Snapple bottles, etc.). As our plastic food containers wear out, we can replace them with glass, like the Mason jar below containing my sugar. I bought a bunch of them at Goodwill (and I think they were brand new) for 99¢.



I'm not suggesting that we throw out all our plastic and restock our entire Tupperware cupboards with non-plastic alternatives.That would be wasteful and expensive. I'm simply suggesting that the next time you need a new container of some sort, look for non-plastic options you already have, or opt to buy something made of glass or other durable material.

There are also companies who are now making BPA-free plastic, like CamelBak and Nalgene, but keep in mind that it's still plastic and will take much more time to break down than other, more natural alternatives.

Basically, as with most of my green tips, just be more aware of what you and your family are using and ingesting.

Unless, of course, you don't mind if your eight-year-old girl or boy starts growing boobs.

Repurposing

Repurpose: transitive verb : to give a new purpose or use to

Today's tip is about reusing what you already have, but in a different way. Instead of running out to Organized Living or Bed Bath & Beyond to buy those pretty new organization boxes, buckets, and whatnot, try using some of the "junk" you already have lying around. We just happen to have a lot of beer cartons that come through the house. They get repurposed into drawers organizers and pen holders.

You've seen my rolling pin:



Instead of buying new Tupperware, try containers that used to house something else. This coffee jar stores rice now.


Instead of buying a pretty new container for my homemade deodorant, I use an old teacup I had lying around.


And instead of buying new plastic bottles for my no 'poo concoctions, I use old dish soap and body wash bottles.

The silver cup is an old toothbrush holder that I keep my baking soda in, and the pump bottle on the middle shelf is an old soap dispenser that I keep my OCM mixture in.

Instead of buying plastic makeup organizers (I already do have a couple) I simply use glasses to keep most of my beauty products in.



My favorite way to repurpose, of course, is to turn plastic bags into purses by "plarning":


You can also just iron plastic bags together (between wax paper) to create a sheet of pliable plastic you could use as a waterproof lining, gift wrap, tablecloth....

Here are some cool repurposing ideas from apartmentherapy.com:





The possibilities are endless!

Of course, I know people repurpose old stuff all the time; these are just a few ideas. I would love to hear how other people use old things in new ways. I'm always looking for new ideas!