No Impact Week: Water

green | October 22nd, 2009 - 12:02 PM

image-80-tap-water

HuffPost’s No Impact Week looks into ‘Water’.  If you haven’t joined their No Impact Week, then try a few of their goals anyway.

Friday of No Impact Week looks at ‘Soak up the personal Benefits of using less water.’

Having looked at your trash, transportation, food, consumption, and energy habits, there’s one major daily lifestyle change left to tackle water. A whopping 71% of Americans are trying to reduce their footprint. Of those 71%, 60% are reducing their water consumption, and saving a lot of money on their water and electric bill.  In this economy, every flush counts! Turn off the tap. Believe us, you’ll feel better about yourself.

Steps:

  • Assess your current water habits from the moment you hit the snooze button until bedtime. Calculate your approximate water footprint and figure out the water footprint of your food here.
  • Create a list of the water you will likely consume today (not exact measurements, just general usage). Think about where you use water: at home, at work, church or school, on the go, and eating out. This will help you think about how you use water.
  • BEGIN! Turn off the faucet. Run the water gently when needed. Soak the dishes. Sponge-bathe.
  • Ask yourself throughout the day: What is the hardest part about reducing the amount of water you use? Are you doing something particularly novel or fun to reduce your water consumption?

Ideas for Change

In the Kitchen

If you don’t own a dishwasher or just have a small load to wash, fill one side of the sink with hot, soapy water. Stack your dishes and let them soak so that you use less water and less effort. Then load into an in-sink rack, and rinse by pouring hot water over the top or using your sink’s spray nozzle. If you’re using a dishwasher, wait until you have a full load to run it, and use the energy-saving setting, of course.

Reuse all cooking water for making soups, stocks, and other dishes, as well as rinsing produce, watering houseplants, and washing pets.

Reuse the same glass throughout the day instead of dirtying up several.

In the Bathroom

  • Take shorter showers. Set a timer.
  • Take colder showers! It’s good for your skin, circula- tion, and better than coffee in the morning!
  • Sponge-bathe: Use a washcloth. You’ll exfoliate at the same time. This is great as a refresher at the end of a sticky summer day too.
  • If you don’t have a low-flow toilet, set a plastic bottle filled with water in your toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush.
  • Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth or shaving.
  • Only flush if you must. “If it’s yellow, let it mellow!” and then flush with water saved in a bucket during your shower.

Wash It

  • Wash clothes with full loads or set the water level to the appropriate amount of clothing.
  • In a twin-tub washing machine, reuse rinse water for several loads.
  • If your washing machine drains into a sink, use the drained water for plant-watering and toilet-flushing.

Going Out

In restaurants, only order water if you’re going to drink it.

On that note, drink water instead of other beverages! It’s the least processed drink you can consume, and  actually uses less water (and energy) to produce and transport than any other drink.

Ask for tap rather than bottled water. Did you know that you’re spending 1,000 times more for bottled? That’s crazy.

Carry around a reusable drink container. Fill, drink and repeat.

thanks to HuffPost for sharing their ideas: check out their website.

They are asking people to sign up so they can communicate with you about the week – and as one way for you to share your experiences with HuffPost.

HuffPost are also be inviting you to send in photos, videos and blogs to be featured on HuffPost Green.

You can also keep the conversation going on Twitter by using the hashtag #nipweek and following @noimpactgroup.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/the-no-impact-week-guide_n_317277.html

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