The average American wastes thousands of gallons of water each year. Gallons of water are wasted during our daily activities as we take long showers, wash our cars, pre-wash the dishes, water the lawn, and more.
In America, our water consumption has increased 127% from 1950, and 95% of that water goes straight down the drain, while much of the world lives off of 3 gallons of water per day or less. To put that into perspective, we can waste 3 gallons of water with one flush of the toilet.
Here are some common ways that clean, potable water is being cast away down the pipes.
1. Showering and Brushing Teeth:
Showers account for 20% of total indoor water use. While waiting for shower water to heat up, Americans waste a trillion gallons of clean, potable water. Up to 7 gallons is used every minute that the showerhead is running.
How many of us leave the tap running while we brush our teeth? Up to three gallons of water are used each minute that the faucet is running. If every American moistened their toothbrush and turned off the flow, countless gallons could be saved.
2. Leaky Toilet, Faucets, and Pipes:
Leaky toilets, faucets, and pipes account for a lot of wasted water. The average US household leaks up to 9 gallons of water a day, but with a leaky toilet, that number can easily jump to 200 gallons a day. Faucets leaking at a rate of one drop per second account for 2,700 gallons of water wasted each year.
3. Washing Cars:
We are a culture that loves our cars. Ten times more water is used to wash cars with a hose compared to washing with a bucket or going to a professional car wash. And we just let that contaminated water pool in our yards or storm drains, eventually finding its way into lakes, rivers, and streams, polluting the environment.
4. Pre-washing Dishes:
Pre-washing dishes in not necessary if you scrap off the hard, dried on bits first before placing the dishes in the dishwasher. Similarly, turning the dishwasher on when it’s not a full load is an efficient use of water. An old model can use up to 13 gallons per cycle, while a newer, water-efficient model will use around 4 gallons per wash cycle. Remember, much of the world’s population exists on just 3 gallons of water per day.
5. Washing Machine:
Inefficient washing machines can use up to 20 gallons for each load. Many Americans do not fill their washing machines to capacity, instead spreading their laundry duties over many loads. Using your washing machine for full loads only makes the most of the water used.
6. Using the Toilet as a Garbage Can:
Older toilets can use 3 gallons of water per flush. Some people use their toilets as garbage cans, flushing down single cigarettes, paper towels, and tissues into the system, which is not only bad for skeptic tanks, but waste clean, usable water. Residential toilet use accounts for 40% of urban water demand. In the US, 4.8 billion gallons of water is flushed down the toilet every single day.
7. Watering Lawns:
Did you know that watering our lawns uses 8,000,000,000 gallons of water each day in the US alone—again, that’s every single day? The average lawn uses 264 gallons of water each hour. The garden hoses and sprinklers we use to water our lawns can waste more water per hour than the average US household with four members use in a day.
Homeowners can combat the water waste by taking simple conservation steps with these low-cost options that you can implement immediately to reduce your household’s water waste.
http://www.goinggreentoday.com/blog/7-areas-your-house-is-wasting-water/
Posted via email from Markham Real Estate Today with Asif Khan
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