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Your Water Footprint - Do you use over 1,000 gallons per day?

I consider myself a pretty average person as far as my personal habits are concerned. I get up for work just like everyone else. I hop in the shower, I shave, I have breakfast, I brush my teeth. Sounds pretty average to me right? Turns out, my "average" habits, mean I use 1,219.42 gallons of water per day! Well, maybe I'm an anomaly. Maybe the Water Footprint calculator I used went screwy on my personal data. The average American must use way less water than that, right? Apparently the average Water Footprint of an American is 1,190 gallons per day! How can that be possible?

Start by asking yourself a few questions. We'll start with the easy ones. How much time do you spend in the shower each day, ten minutes maybe? How much time do you spend in front of you bathroom sink each day? Maybe another ten minutes? Do you turn the faucet off when you brush your teeth? Do you "let it mellow"? That last question had me stumped. I had to Google the definition. Suffice to say, most people probably don't let it mellow, count yourself among them.

If you answered ten minutes, you don't turn off the faucet and you don't let it mellow, you are just like me. You are well on your way to using 1,219.42 gallons of water a day my friend! Impossible you say? Well, let's ask ourselves a couple of harder questions then.

Do you have a low-flow showerhead in your home? How about a low-flow toilet, or any low-flow faucets? I actually do not have any of these conservative appliances and it's a real shame, but at the same time, I use more water than the average American. By using a low-flow or dual flush toilet you can evidently save as much as 2.5 gallons per flush. A low-flow showerhead can reduce water consumption by up to a gallon per minute! If you have any low-flow appliances in your house you're doing better than me, but are you doing better than the average American at 1,190 gallons per day? We have a few more questions yet.

Do you eat meat and dairy like the average American? Do you recycle your papers and plastics? How about recycling your clothes? How much do you drive? Conserving gasoline means conserving water as well. The production processes of all these things use obscene amounts of water, and the only way to cut down on that kind of water consumption is to either not consume the product, or cut down on your consumption. Take meat and dairy as an example. I like my steak and eggs as much as the next guy. Turns out that I am indirectly consuming over 1,000 gallons of water a day from my eating habits alone! Now I don't expect anyone to become a vegetarian in the name of water conservation, but there are few things we can do, that will not only decrease our water consumption levels, but decrease our overall waste as well.

Recycling depots for paper and plastics are very common and easy to find in every city. Consider that by recycling these products, you not only save on some of the water that goes into producing them (don't kid yourself, it will take water to recycle them as well), but you can conserve trees and the mountains of waste that go into dumps and landfills every day, not to mention the energy expended in the production process.

Maybe we can't reasonably save 1,190 gallons of water every day in our consumer based society, but I'm willing to bet we can cut down substantially on that number. I know I can. The low-flow appliances look to be the easiest to implement, and how cool will your bathroom be with a dual flush toilet installed? It all starts at home, and it can be a real eye opener when you realize just how much water can be saved with virtually no effort.

Article Source: http://www.ebaykings.co.uk

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