Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink

Today, I used my dishwasher for the first time.

Groundbreaking news, I know. I even updated my facebook status to reflect the big news. I moved into this apartment at the beginning of 2012, and it included a dishwasher. Selling point for many, right? Especially if you don't pay for water! Well... I don't use dishwashers. I like washing my dishes. It's therapeutic. I also believe I use less water than a typical dishwasher (my apartment doesn't have a fancy schmancy high-efficiency one) doing dishes the way my mom taught me. I may not have to pay for the water, but I am passionate about reducing, reusing, and recycling what I can, when I can. I'll likely blog on ways to integrate the infamous 3 R's into your lifestyle in a variety of ways over the next month, but today we'll start with reducing water usage.

Did you know that less than 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh water? Nearly 97% of the Earth’s water is in the oceans and not suitable for human consumption. Of that 3% that IS suitable, only about 0.3% is found in rivers and lakes, which is where most of the water you and I use everyday exists. “Thus, rivers and lakes that supply fresh surface water for human uses only constitute about 0.007 percent of total water” (taken from http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html. Feel free to read more about how fascinating water is!) Clean, accessible water is quickly becoming more of an urgent matter than it has ever been, and we Americans seem to be oblivious to how wasteful our water habits are. On average, an American uses 100 gallons of water each DAY. That’s roughly 6 gallons of water PER WAKING HOUR.

• Don’t flush as often. The toilet alone uses, on average, 27% of the household water. Use the motto “If it’s brown, flush it down. If it’s yellow, let it mellow.”
• Fix leaky faucets immediately (12.7% of water usage is just from leaks). At 1 drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year.
• Use cold water for laundry as often as possible – hot water only for really dirty clothes.
• While you’re at it, make sure you do full loads in the washer (or dishwasher) or set the machine to ‘small load’ to use less water.
• Invest in a good shower head and other efficient appliances if you can afford to do so (washer, faucets, toilets, humidifier, etc).
• Shower every other day unless necessary. Most people do not get THAT dirty each and every day to require a daily shower. It has simply become a habit rather than a requirement. My other suggestion is to take what’s called an “army shower.” I learned about these while I was studying abroad in Thailand and had to pay for my hot water. An army shower is basically a shower where you turn on water to get wet, then turn it off while you lather up your body with soap and your hair with shampoo. Then, turn the water back on to rinse off. It saves water and money by not using your water heater as much.
• Don’t run the faucet while brushing your teeth or shaving. This is just silly.
• Don’t pre-rinse dishes. Excel Energy reports this is simply a waste and doesn’t accomplish anything. Dishwashers do not need your pre-rinsing help (whether they’re a machine or human dishwashers!)
• Or, rather than use a dishwasher, try filling the sink with 2 inches of water to do dishes. When you rinse a dish, accumulate the water in your sink rather than running it down the other drain. Do the least dirty dishes first, and when you’ve got a sink full of more water, soak the tougher dishes. Don’t wash each dish with running water and a soaped-up scrub brush. Again, this is just silly.
• Peel and clean vegetables and fruits in a dish of water rather than running water.

I got the statistics from these sites:  http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html, http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html and

http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/water_trivia_facts.cfm. You are welcome to read more if you're interested!

Oh, and I unloaded the dishwasher only to find that it did a crappy job. So much for saving time and water... I'll have to wash half of them by hand again.