26 Jan 2022

Sustainability has always been a major concern for a lot of people, and it has become increasingly important in recent years as the impacts of unsustainable living become clearer. However, many people forget that water is one of the planet’s most valuable resources – one we should treasure.

Sustainability programs like Project WET helped to spread the understanding of how important water really is and has helped people to manage their usage of water more effectively and efficiently. While Project WET was exclusive to Arizona University, that does not mean it only made a difference there.

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If you want to be more careful with your water usage or you simply care about being more sustainable in any way possible, then the same techniques mentioned in Project WET can be used here. So, how do you use your water in a more efficient way? 

Water Usage

One of the easiest ways to limit how much water you use is to simply use less of it. While you will obviously still need to drink water to survive, and there will be certain appliances that rely on having water available, making sure that you do not waste it is actually quite easy.

For example, this might mean things like using more efficient appliances to wash dishes and clothes rather than handwashing them with a constant stream of water. Turning off taps when you are not using them is just one of the many ways that you can keep your water usage low.

It is important to remember that even small things add up quickly. One small habit that uses a bit more water than normal might be fine on its own, but if you keep doing it every day, you are wasting a huge amount of water for almost no reason.

Water Awareness

Understanding how much water you use for each hour of the day, project, or hobby is very important. Even something as basic as showering can use a huge amount of water, and it is not always clear how much you are using since you can’t easily judge your usage.

Cutting down a shower by only a few minutes can massively increase the amount of water that you save, as could keeping the bath a little bit less full. Not only does this keep water bills down, but the water that you don’t use will stack up to a significant amount of water saved.

You can’t always measure how much water you are using, but having at least a general understanding of how much water you might waste can at least help you minimize the waste itself. If you want to be as sustainable as possible, you could even try filling your water bottles just a little bit less.

Use Cold Water

As strange as it can sound, using cold water is often a more sustainable option, and not just because of the power usage. Hot water can often cause more wear and tear to certain devices in certain contexts, and it also takes time to heat up – which can waste a lot of the water that you do not use.

For example, it is quite common to let a shower run for a while so that it can heat up. However, all of that cold water is getting wasted, draining right down out of the shower. This means that you are effectively wasting some water every time you turn on the shower.

Since hot water evaporates quickly, there is also the added benefit of the water not dissipating into the air. This will not have many obvious benefits, but it can still be important to consider if you are using water for hobby projects or nonessential purposes.

Be Efficient

If you have to use water, then it is best to use it in the most efficient way possible. This could mean using appliances that only require one load of water to do the same job that would need several refills by hand, or even appliances that use alternative methods to heat water.

Whatever you end up using, it is very important to be sure that you are minimizing your water usage. Not all appliances and tools are actually better at staying sustainable, so it is something that you should look into before you make any long-term decisions about new appliance purchases.

As mentioned earlier, something like a dishwasher can be far less wasteful when it comes to water, but it often also requires you to contaminate the water that it does use with chemicals. Whether or not you are comfortable with that depends on the kind of efficiency that you are aiming for.

Collect Water Yourself

Of all the ways that you can reduce water usage, one of the most overlooked is using a water collector to build up your own supply. While you can’t drink it without filtering it (something that has its own sustainability problems), you can use it for numerous nonessential purposes.

For example, having a water collector in your back garden makes it very easy to water both indoor and outdoor plants, all without needing to take water from the mains supply. You can also use it to wash down outdoor spaces or even as an emergency fire extinguishing option.

Getting a water collector is not hard. While most of them are large enough that they’d need a dumpster to move (such as those from EWM Dumpster Rental), they can be made out of almost anything, meaning that you can easily put together a sustainable water container for your yard.