Water, Water, Everywhere, Part I
Bathroom secrets for saving water.
Hi there, and welcome to Make-It-Green Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life. This episode is in honor of a young lady in the fifth grade who is very concerned about the environment that she will grow to inherit. For all you kids listening out there, this one’s for you. Don’t be discouraged that you’re not a grown-up. Even you can make change. These are tips that any of you can do around the house to help you and your family save water. Our first stop is the bathroom.
Saving water is important because our water is becoming more and more polluted, so there is less clean water to go around. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.”
Yes, the earth’s surface is covered with water. But fresh water is in high-demand because we can’t drink salty water, and cleaning it up so we can drink it is expensive. Most of the water on earth is about as refreshing as drinking pickle juice from the jar after you’ve eaten all the pickles.
OK, so I drink pickle juice and I think it’s refreshing. But I like pickles. Why waste the juice?
Moving on. You kids have an assignment. Should you choose to accept it, you are about to be appointed the water waste detectives in your home. After you finish this episode, you’ll be able to spot waste in any bathroom in the house.
Brushing Your Teeth
My Mom and Dad had a really bad habit when they were brushing their teeth. They would turn the water on and wet their toothbrushes to help lather the paste. Then, they’d leave the water running until it was time to rinse! I had to do something.
Now, I know all you boys and girls brush your teeth twice a day like good kids. And I know you spend the full two minutes like your dentist told you to. But leaving the water on for a good two minutes lets almost four gallons of water go down the drain. Picture your mom buying four new jugs of milk, and then opening them all up and dumping them down the kitchen sink. What a waste!
I was only eight years old at the time, but I was obsessed with saving the earth. Oh, how times change. I immediately became the family leak detective. I taught my family how to turn off the water between wetting their brushes and rinsing their mouths.
Showering
You can apply this all over the bathroom. If your hot water takes a long time to get to the tap and you leave the water running, consider all the other things you could do with the water. Wash your feet. Water the plants. Soak the dishes. Bathe the dog. Rinse your dirty shoes. Hand-wash your socks.
Try this out at home. Ask your parents for an old five-gallon paint bucket, two-quart juice pitcher, or other container that you know the volume of. Get yourself a stopwatch, and plant yourself in front of the bathtub. Turn on the water, let it run into the bucket, and time how long it takes for the bucket to fill up.
Next, divide the amount of water the bucket holds by the time it took to fill up. This gives you the flow rate. For, example, if your five-gallon bucket filled up in a minute, your water comes out of the tap at a rate of five gallons per minute. So, if you’re letting the shower run for three minutes to warm up, that’s about than 15 gallons of water you’ve wasted not cleaning anything!
If you really want to become the water waste detective, time your next shower. Then calculate how much water you used in your shower by multiplying the flow rate you measured with your bucket by the time it took you to shower.
Then ask yourself if you can cut back. For example, turn off the water in the shower when you are putting on your soap and shampoo, then turn it back on to rinse. And as my dad likes to say, “Shower for Short!”
If you still can’t hurry up enough for a five-minute shower, consider asking your parents to buy a low-flow shower head. These usually mix air with the water so it still feels powerful on your skin, but it’s using less water.
Baths
If you enjoy taking a bath (let’s face it, who doesn’t?) here are some tips for you. I’ve found out that if I stop up the drain, and only turn on the hot tap, by the time the bath fills up, the hot water has come on and diluted the cold water that came out of the tap in the first minute or so. See? You don’t have to waste any water that way! You can always make it cooler later by turning on the cold tap.
Also, don’t forget to time how long it takes for your bathtub to fill. If it’s more than the time it takes for you to take a shower, consider showering instead.
Toilets
Lastly, don’t forget to check out the toilets. If you live in the city, your toilets are filled with the same water that comes into your sink. It was drinkable before it got into your toilet. So don’t waste it!
Get yourself a plastic jug, fill it with rocks and some water, and get someone to help you put it in the back of the toilet. This will help the toilet use less water per flush. Each time the back of the tank fills up, the volume taken up by your jug is water that your toilet won’t have to use.
Alrighty kids (and big kids), hop to it! If you need to review the stuff I told ya, don’t forget to visit our website. You can find a transcript of this show at quickanddirtytips.com. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out our two new shows, The Nutrition Diva’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Eating Well and Feeling Fabulous, and The Public Speaker’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills.