Think you can only go green at work? You can incorporate green habits like water conservation in places you would not even think of, such as your bathroom, which will not only help you save on your utility bill, but will also help California as it struggles with its historically low water reserve levels.
- If you have a non-conserving toilet, (a 3.5 gallon flush or greater), retrofit the toilet with a water-saving device. There are several options that you can discuss with your local hardware professional, but an easy and quick fix involves placing one or two weighted bottles in the toilet tank to displace water flushed. With each flush you will save water equal to the amount you have displaced, and thousands of gallons a year.
- Take short showers. With water flowing up to five gallons per minute from a non-conserving shower head, showers consume about one-fifth of water used indoors.
- To save water while you are in the shower, turn off the water while you lather up.
- Turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving. Running the water continuously can waste quite a bit of water. Fill a cup with water when brushing your teeth and fill the bowl to rinse your razor instead of running the water.
- Avoid using your toilet as a wastebasket, and keep a wastebasket in the bathroom.
- Buy a shower curtain that will far outlast cheap plastic ones; a shower curtain made of hemp will naturally resist mildew and is machine washable.
- Fix slow drains. Pour half a cup of baking soda down the drain and follow it with half a cup of white vinegar. Let it sit for twenty minutes to a half hour, then pour boiling water down the drain (about two quarts).
- Turn your soap bar scraps into usable shavings. Using a cheese grater, grate several scraps into shavings and put them in a decorative bowl next to the sink. Just take a pinch from the bowl with a dry hand, add water and work into a lather.
The video below can show you several helpful ways to conserve water indoors.
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Toilets account for approx. 30% of water used indoors. By installing a Dual Flush toilet you can save between 40% and 70% of drinking water being flushed down the toilet, depending how old the toilet is you are going to replace.
If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I highly recommend installing a Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. On an average of 5 uses a day (4 liquid/ 1 solid) a Caroma Dual Flush toilet uses an average of 0.96 gallons per flush. The new Sydney Smart uses only 1.28 and 0.8 gpf, that is an average of 0.89 gallons per flush. This is the lowest water consumption of any toilet available in the US. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s (High Efficiency toilets) http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several toilet rebate programs available in the US. Please visit my blog http://pottygirl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-you-should-know-about-toilets/
to learn more or go to http://www.caromausa.com to learn where you can find Caroma toilets locally. Visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see how we flush potatoes with 0.8 gallons of water, meant for liquids only. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli, owner ecoTransitions Inc.
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