Ten Facts About the Water We Waste
- Americans now use 127 percent more water than we did in 1950.
- About 95 percent of the water entering our homes goes down the drain.
- Running the tap while brushing your teeth can waste 4 gallons of water.
- Older toilets can use 3 gallons of clean water with every flush, while new toilets use as little as 1 gallon.
- Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drop per second can waste up to 2,700 gallons of water each year.
- A garden hose or sprinkler can use almost as much water in an hour as an average family of four uses in one day.
- A water-efficient dishwasher will use as little a 4 gallons per wash cycle, whereas some older models use up to 13 gallons per cycle.
- Some experts estimate that more than 50 percent of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by over-watering.
- Many people in the world exist on 3 gallons of water per day or less. We can use that amount in one flush of the toilet.
- Over a quarter of all the clean, drinkable water you use in your home is used to flush the toilets.
Things are slightly different in Oz (we’re into the eigth year of a seven year drought).
We have dual flush toilets; big flush for number 2s and a little flush for number 1s. We also have the motto “If it’s yellow let it mellow”.
People caught running the tap while brushing their teeth will be shot on sight.
We, in Sydney, currently can only water our garden with a hose 3 days a week.
We, Sydney again, were recently allowed to wash our cars with a hose; for the last eon it was just with a bucket of water.
We, all Australians, get government rebates to put in rain water tanks, even more money back if you hook them up to the toilet; water in not out.
We’re encouraged to have showers of less than four minutes. Or share with a friend; actually this last one has being found to be counter productive.
