SUMMARY OF SAVING IDEAS BELOW:
While Brushing Teeth 140 Billion Gallons Saved
Washing Dishes 250 Billion Gallons Saved
Flushing Protocol 456 Billion Gallons Saved
Water Leaks 73 Billion Gallons Saved
Washing Vegetables 97 Billion Gallons Saved
More Toilet Savings 29 Billion Gallons Saved
WHILE BRUSHING YOUR TEETH: I decided to test a small but well known, easily accomplished, method of saving water. We have all heard that we should turn off the spigot while brushing our teeth. However, does it really help? Is it really material to prudent usage of our natural resources? Another article herein mocks the statement there is less water from our rivers reaching the ocean than one hundred years ago, and the author blamed Global Warming. I stated that it had little or nothing to do with Global Warming. I thought (and still do think) that it is caused by an increased use of water by mankind.
I brushed my teeth allowing water from the faucet to flow into a container during the time that I normally had the faucet off. It filled 42 ounces of water into the container. (I used one from a hospital so I believe the measurement was scientifically accurate.) I brush my teeth at least twice a day so have had a minimum daily savings of 84 ounces from merely turining off the water while I brush. That's 1.31 gallons of water saved daily. Well, it seems to me that would add up really quickly.
I decided to calculate how much difference it made daily in the United States. On the date this is written there are 306,389,701 people estimated by the Bureau of the Census to be in the US. I studied other statistics and found that approximately 3,300,000 children are born each year. Let's assume that children don't really know how to brush their teeth properly until they are four years old. (I know! I know! Your child learned at 18 months and does it quite well, thank you. Same for my grandchildren.) However, let's take four years of children four or under from our sample and we will have 293,189,701 people brushing their teeth twice a day. By turning off the spigots each would save 1.31 gallons per day or a total of 384,078,508 gallons per day. That's a whopping 140 BILLION gallons per year. That seems pretty significant to me. WOW! That's a lot of water.
But is it really? I decided not to believe my own calculations which told me that's a LOT OF WATER. I went at random to water usage for various US cities. Being environmetally conscious I chose Redwood City, CA. Everyone likes redwoods. They are a symbol of Mother Earth's misuse so it seemed to fit. In 2006 Redwood City had a population of 79,000. Not very many compared to the 300 million in the US but an average size city I would guess. I then researched their water usage. On a daily basis it's 10.9 million gallons. Annually it's 3.98 billion gallons. Our 140 billion gallons of annual water savings would provide all of the yearly water needs for 35 cities the size of Redwood City, CA. Not quite one for every state but still significant.
WASHING DISHES: I have always had an automatic dishwater in my various homes. My mother refuses to have one and hand washes all dishes. I rationalize that the ads stating that they are more energy efficient are true (perhaps to avoid dish pan hands.) Researching this for myself I found a British group who have studied the issue. They said, in summary, that it takes 3.0 to 4.25 gallons of water to do a load in a dishwasher while handwashing will use 27 gallons. I could not believe the difference so decided to test for myself. I visited my Mom and took several measurements while we washed a load of dishes by hand together.
She keeps a plastic pan in the sink which she half fills with warm soapy water where the actual washing is done. I measured the level of the water and the pan used 2.63 gallons of soak and wash water. Mom then washed by hand with a sponge and set the dishes on the other side of the sink. When she had a pile I would rinse them with hot water from the spigot, turning the water off each time I emptied the sink. I measured to the second the amount of time I spent with the rinse water running. The usage of hot rinse water was 7.88 gallons. I could not believe my eyes when the number came on my calculator. Total water usage was 10.51 gallons. We only washed dishes for two so much more would have been used if we had a family of four. Definitely there is significant water savings using a modern automatic dish washer.
However, a word of caution. Some people always have to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak. I have one relative who stacks her dishes in the sink. Then she rinses them in hot water under the spigot and scours them with a sponge before she puts them into the washer. I'm sure that what ever savings this environmentally conscious woman has from the dishwasher she wastes in pre-washing them by hand. According to the British study, by the way, the dishes were cleaner from the automatic washer than those hand washed. Of course the relative I refer to lives on well water. However, we haven't even discussed the energy wasted heating the water each way. She wastes fossil fuels in heating the tap water she uses for pre-washing.
How much water can a dishwasher save in a year? If we take my much lower number of use for handwashing of 10 1/2 gallons per load and subtract the automatic dishwasher's high estimate of 4 1/4 gallons we save 6 1/4 gallons per day. More if you do multiple loads. That's 2,285 gallons per year per household. The Department of the Census estimated that there will be 113 million households in 2009. That is a minimum savings of 258 BILLION gallons of water annually. Part of these are already in place but much more savings would be achieved if everyone had a dishwasher. A study by Kuo-Yann Lai estimated that there were a little over 50% of US households with automatic dishwaters in 1990. A little dated. However, let's assume many people have bought them and the number without is not 45% but actually 35%. If all those households converted to automatic dishwashers the savinga would be reduced to 90 billion gallons of water saved in the US annually. That savings would provide all of the water for an additional 22 cities the size of Redwood City, CA. Not as much as simply turning off the water while brushing your teeth but still significant. What about our super environmentally minded brethren in Europe and Japan? Well, Europe only has automatic dishwashers in 25% of their households and Japan a meager 8%. Wonder if they leave their water on while brushing their teeth. Sorry. I won't get started on how it sours my digestion to hear these people criticize us for our lack of environmental awareness and then waste natural resources themselves.
SIMPLE FLUSHING PROTOCOL: No, I'm not going there. I do believe in flushing after every trip. After all that's what indoor plumbing is all about, a better way of living. However, there is one way of saving water in the bathroom which I have changed to once I became aware of it. Don't throw a cigarette butt in the toilet and flush it (unless it needs flushing anyway). I don't smoke cigarettes but you get the idea. Don't throw that facial tissue there after blowing your nose or wiping makeup and then flushing it (unless it needs flushing anyway). The cigarette butt goes into an ash tray. The used facial tissue goes into the trash can. Why? That wasted flush used at least five gallons of water. Okay, let's go through the math. If 250 million American adults just waste one flush per day at five gallons per flush that is 456 BILLION gallons of water wasted each year. That's the amount of water used each year by 112 cities the size of our example of Redwood City, CA.
WATER LEAKS: One day check the reading on your water meter. Make it a day when you can take a couple of hours without using water. Two hours later check the reading again. If there was a change you have a water leak somewhere in your system. One common place would be from your toilet tank down into the bowel. Put some type of coloring liquid, such as food coloring into the tank. Check later to see if the color has leaked down into the bowel. If so get out the repair manual or call a plumber. Another likely spot is drippy faucets. A dripping faucet can waste 20 gallons per day. If only 10 million homes have a leaky faucet or spigot then 200 million gallons a day of water is wasted. That's over 73 BILLION gallons of water leaked each year. That's enough water wasted to provide all water needs for another 18 towns the size of Redwood City, CA.
WASHING VEGETABLES: Many of us wash vegetables or fruit before cooking or preparing them whether from the market or the garden. A small shallow pan would be much better than washing them under a running faucet. If you filled a plastic pan the size of my mother's wash pan it would take 2 1/2 gallons of water. If you leave the water running for only three minutes while you wash the veggies that would use 8 gallons. You will save 5 1/2 gallons each time you do this. Over a year, washing veggies in a pan three times per week would save 858 gallons of water. If 113 million American households did this we would save 97 BILLION gallons of water per year. Enough to serve 24 cities the size of Redwood City, CA.
MORE TOILET SAVINGS: This one is real simple and I know a lot of people who already do it. They use it to save on their water bills and have for a long time. Unless you have a modern, state of the art toilet you take a plastic bottle or a jar and fill it with enough sand to hold it to the bottom of the tank, out away from the mechanisms. Of course put the top back on it before doing so. It replaces its own volume of water so decreases your usage by that amount with each flush. This is something you can do once and forget about it. A 16.9 ounce soft drink plastic bottle saves that much water with each flush. Total annual savings per household is 578 gallons. If 50 million of our households did this the savings nationwide would be 28.9 BILLION gallons of water annually. Enough water to serve another 7 cities the size of Redwood City, CA.
JUST THE TIPS ABOVE would save the water normally used each year by 218 cities the size of Redwood City, CA and serve about 17,200,000 people. This is, I believe, a significant number and relatively easy to accomplish.
GARDENS: When I first began to garden I did so on a plot of land loaned to me by an old retired farmer. I think it amused him to watch my efforts and to correct the things I did wrong. However, he surely taught me a lot of things worth knowing about gardening. One I remember in particular concerned water. He provided a hose from his well which I used to water the garden. The plants were starting to grow and after a week he shared a secret with me. He told me that by daily watering I was not only wasting water but was growing weaker plants which would not live through a dry spell. He explained that by watering every day the plants had no need to grow deep roots in their search for water. If I allowed it to dry out a little by say watering every 2 to 3 days the roots would automatically follow the water down as it sank into the ground. This makes for healthier plants. I have followed this ever since, growing plants with deep roots which survive the heat of summer in a much more healthy fashion. I have also cut my water usage in half.
METHODS I REFUSE TO USE: Being the comfort loving creature I am, and male, there are several moves I will not take to save water:
(1) Shorter Showers; I wake up slow and grumpy. A hot shower is the best way to start the day. Let the hippies who advocate no showers stink their own homes up. One of the things which separates us from the animals is our hygeine.
(2) Water Saving Shower Heads; A shower should run full force with normal size droplets, not tiny stinging drops which make you feel as if you've been sand blasted.
(3) Drought resistant plants and shrubs and No Grass; Grass and normal plants convert CO2 to oxygen, keeping the carbon as they grow. What is the use of living if the quality of life is such that you may as well be on a space ship somewhere?
Aside from the preceeding three actions I refuse to take I believe I can claim some 'offsets'. I drink enough good Bourbon to have a considerable savings in water. Al Gore, may I have a carbon offset for that?
Well, I just wrote this to express ideas on water conservation. I believe the above are good, simple, and collectively have great effect. The other reason is to give some idea of the enormous quantities used in our society. This doesn't even touch industry and farming. The above ideas are expressed in savings. Imagine the overall use still in place even after these savings. No wonder our rivers are returning less water to the ocean.
However, in the final analysis, no water is ever truly wasted. It is not gone. It simply converts to another state and reaches the ocean in other ways. For the purposes of total water on the planet it stays about the same. If it's not in an Artic ice pack it's in the ocean or floating around as water vapor. If we waste it on our yards or showers it still ends up as water vapor to fall somewhere on the planet as rain or snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment