What are you doing to conserve water?

Environment

What are you doing to conserve water?

By The World ⋅ August 5, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

366826369_2a21456a46 Seawater covers 71 percent of the planet. Fresh water is a much more precious commodity. So, a Brazilian environmental group has come up with a novel proposal for conserving clean water.

SOS Mata Atlantica says Brazilian households can save more than a thousand gallons of water a year by cutting back on one toilet flush a day. The group isn’t exactly urging people to hold it in. It’s suggesting instead that people relieve themselves in the shower.

They’re not kidding around… this TV ad below shows the Statue of Liberty, Gandhi, basketball players and all sorts of cartoon characters piddling in the shower. They deliver the message that urinating in the shower is harmless and keeps fresh water from being flushed down the toilet.

So, what are you doing to conserve water?

Low flow toilets?
Fewer car washes?
or maybe showering with friend?

Leave your comment below.

Discussion

25 comments for “What are you doing to conserve water?”

D. Caruso

If males turned on the faucet in their bathroom sink to low, urinated in the sink, and then turned the faucet on full for one second, gallons of water could be saved for each male every day.
Cara

My boyfriend and I practice “if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” Not really a big sacrifice at our house considering the amount of water we save! And it saves time!
DCO

VIVA Brasil! They make me proud of their creativity! It takes a full bucket of H2O to fill up to get hot water to the shower at our house… I use it to flush or to water plants or add to the wash…

p.s. don’t tell my Mom but I’ve been doing this for years…
Claire Black Slotton

During the drought of the 1970s we learned, “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.”
Darren Guentert

Our family of four only flushes the toilet when we deficate, otherwise the pee gets flushed twice per day. Once before we leave for work/school and when we finish up the day. We have a specific Pee toilet so, our family only flushes twice per day. We figure that we save 10 flushes per day. In the morning and evening, those of us that are regular and can time it right, do the do in the pee toilet so as to not have to waste the extra flush! And if you saw our cars…we never wash them!!
D. McDonald

When we lived in the desert, this hung above our toilets: If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. Saves a lot of water in a family of four.
Reality Man

1) Fewer showers, combined with sun exposure, means less water use and more vitamin D.
2) Brief shower before entering local pool, more thorough shower afterward.
Mari V.

While washing hands, I use our lever faucets to turn water off while I suds, then back on to rinse.

While washing dishes, I suds the dishes then rinse a dish with one hand while reaching for the next with my free hand. All this works best when dishes are washed immediately after using.

We collect rain in a barrel, and apply it to the edibles with a water can. The decorative plants are all of such variety to be adapted to the dry conditions, and are predominantly perennials.

Taking a cue from a WWII US Navy veteran who mentioned that he still takes “Navy showers”, we turn water on to get the suds going, but not full spray until it’s time to rinse.

And, in reference to the article in point, I will admit to peeing in the shower. Why should that be shameful?
Vinny

I try not to flush each time after urinating but only do it at the end of the day. It works ok in our house of two but if everyone flushed only every other (or more)visit to the loo( to urinate) then a lot of water can be conserved.
http://bike123.com larry

go around the garden perimeter
keeps away all kinds of pests.
doin the sink thing for decades
easier target.
Also keep a 5 gallon pail in the kitchen for dishwater.
Keep a pitcher in the shower for water til it gets warm, use these to flush number two.
Get a new toilet top with basin spout for hand washing- uses fresh water
basin drains into tank
http://rainwater.org richard heinichen

over the 20 years our company has captured over 2 million gallons of water that supply over 300 people their whole domestic water supply. Of course each family has thousands of gallons stored water. The source is Rainwater. It is 4.5 billion years old and is still the gold standard. If a system is sized right there is no need for a well in our area of 32 inches a year. We also have so much water at tank town we bottle it. Still the only bottled rainwater in the world. Tanks. Richard Heinichen, Mayor of Tank Town.
Kelly in Austin

I keep empty jugs in the cabinet, and capture the water I run when I need to get the water hot, and use that “waste” to water plants. I’m about to replace my 1.6 gal toilets with dual-stage flush units, but – in the meantime – I don’t flush every time, if it’s just liquid. (Ya know, “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, but if it’s brown, flush it down”).
Caroline in Watsonville, CA

The Little House on the Prairie Solution
Last spring we decided that our kitchen cabinets were due for refinishing. We removed the dishwasher and stored it in the barn while the project was going on. We used a plastic dishpan in the sink to do our dishes and I found that standing in front of the sink and looking out our kitchen window to the garden on that side of our house was a peaceful meditative experience. As sometimes happens, the refinishing project took quite a bit longer than we had originally expected and thus I got used to doing the dishes by hand, and really got to enjoy the whole time I spent washing, looking, enjoying. One day we notice that the sink was draining VERY slowly and finally that it was actually backing up. It turned out that the “snake” we used to unclog the line wasn’t long enough to finish the job. And so I was left with a pan full of dirty dish water. It was at that point that I realized that instead of using a soaker hose to water the artichoke, asparagus & potato plants that I was admiring out the window, I could carry the dish pan a few step out the back door and use the dishwater twice for good effect.
Thus, due to an initially annoying “problem” [sluggish, plugged sewer line] we have found a very satisfying solution. I now use 2 containers on my sink. One is for the wash water, in which I use non-toxic, eco-friendly dish soap. The other is for my rinse water. The total volume is less than 10 gallons. I look forward to doing the dishes even more and to the subsequent visit to my vegetable outside. I enjoy the process of pouring the already used water over the next section of plants and having a short visit to the garden at the same time. I now have a lovely curtain hanging over the empty dishwasher space and behind that I have room for the dish rack when it’s not un use and for the compost bucket that I am filling with the scrapes from our food preparation and which we use to recycle into whichever garden bed is current being used as our active compost pile. I love this solution.
Haans Petruschke

Because I live in the Great Lakes region which has plenty of fresh water, we don’t need to conserve. That said we recycle virtually 100% of the water we use back to the lakes, (after appropriate treatment of course).

Haans Petruschke
Kirtland, Ohio
Morgan

We keep buckets in the utility sink where our washing machine drains to capture “gray water” and use it for cleaning the patio blocks, “rinsing” the mulched area where our 3 dogs go, bathing the aforesaid dogs, watering the yard and plants, mopping floors and flushing toilets. I re-use the water after a load of clothes to do a load of rags. We follow the yellow/brown axiom as we are on a septic tank. We have a rain barrel for the veggie garden. Gallons and gallons of water conserved by using and re-using at least once!
Katy

I only purchase water and energy efficient appliances when my old ones wear out. My family takes short showers (most of the time). We use buckets in the shower to catch water which we use to mop and to flush our toilet (and incidentally, we follow the yellow/brown rule unless we’re expecting visitors). When we wait for the water to get warmer or rinse out a glass, we catch that in buckets and use it to supplement the water to the garden. Other garden watering is done only at night. We’ve just moved, and we are transitioning the garden to water-miser native plants and vegetables. We will install a rain barrel or two before the rainy season starts. We also try to take care of our water by avoiding toxic chemicals and detergents (very nearly) all the time. Less toxic stuff goes into the ocean this way.
Marcelo

We only flush when we go for number 2

When I take showers, I try to make them short, less than 5 minutes. I also capture the water from the shower into a container and then I take the water outside and use it to water the plants.
http://addingalinetothepreviouspost Peter Dunn

Instead of spending $400 to buy a low-flow toilet, purchase a Tropicana 100% Fruit Juice in the wide neck plastic bottle. The cap seals perfectly, it is lightweight, and it has a square base that sits firmly on the toilet tank. I call this the PoMan’s LoFlo. This is a variation on yellow mellow without the odor. For older men with frequent urge, it spares the dribble on clothes while eliminating up to 10 flushes or 50 gallons of water per day. Of course, you flush it down with the brown. Coffee maker descaler allows the plastic bottle to be reused after it gets cloudy. Rinse it after flushing and top off the toilet with the rinse water to assure a total flush next time. This low flow really works.
Dai

Practice of water conservation is a way of life for our family in North Carolina. This is in no way a representation of usage out there.

- Urinating during shower is common and not out of the ordinary

- Not turning on the faucet at full blast to wash

- Rain barrel to store rain run-off to use for watering plants

- Use low flow shower heads & not shower too long (less than 5 minutes)

- Use reclaimed water for lawn irrigation
http://www.adamconway.org Adam Conway

I have been peeing in the shower for years, probably most of my life, and think it to be the most normal thing on the planet. Before moving to the city (Mendoza, Argentina), I relieved myself under the night sky full of stars and moon every night for years and years. I highly recommend this to anyone that has the room the do it. Beyond that, I am reading Art Ludwig’s “Create an Oasis with Groundwater” and its totally inspiring. I want to convert my residence here in the desert into a grey water paradise!
Julie Reavis

Our family uses a great product that removes used shower water from your shower AS you are showering and pumps it through the wall to your landscaping. It has saved us real money on our water bill and the plants are thriving. A cool feature is the remote (which we have hanging from our towel rack) that turns the pump on and off. It’s so simple that our kids have no problem using it. If you are interested, the company’s website is http://www.MiragePacific.com
Long Dong

Let’s just go back to the old outhouse days. Saves a lot of water. They could be made modern looking, improved odor control, etc. Maybe Al Gore could sponsor a contest…
eLLy

For me personally I am looking into many ways to reduce my water usage including shorter showers and saving rain water, I would also recommend people to check out the following in reducing your hot water bill.

http://factoidz.com/save-money-on-your-hot-water-bill-flush-your-hot-water-tank/
http://myspace.com/deathly_dancing_pandabear Brandon Grew

shower with a friend, mmm…

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