Recycling: Water

Between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. population nearly doubled. However, in that same period, public demand for water more than tripled! Americans now use an average of 100 gallons of water each day — enough to fill 1,600 drinking glasses! (EPA, 2008)

A recent government survey showed that at least 36 states are anticipating local, regional, or statewide water shortages by 2013. (EPA, 2008)

Most people realize that hot water uses up energy, but supplying and treating cold water requires a significant amount of energy too. American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours per year — enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. (EPA, 2008)

Appliances and Fixtures in General

If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! (EPA, 2008)

If one out of every 100 American homes was retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year — avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year! (EPA, 2008)

Bathroom: Sink, Toilet, Bath, Shower

About 75 percent of the water we use in our homes is used in the bathroom. (California Energy Commission, 2006)

If your toilet is from 1992 or earlier, you probably have an inefficient model that uses between 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush. Newer, high-efficiency toilets use less than 1.3 gallons per flush — that's at least 60 percent less water per flush! (EPA, 2008)

If just 1 percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a new WaterSense labeled toilet, the country would save more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough electricity to supply more than 43,000 households for one month. (EPA, 2008)

The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at bedtime can save up to 8 gallons of water per day, which equals 240 gallons a month. (EPA, 2008)

Letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours. (EPA, 2008)

Leaky faucets that drip at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water each year; A leaky toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water every day. If your fixtures have leaks, you should get them repaired! (EPA, 2008)

A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons. (EPA, 2008)

Other Household Water Needs

The average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load, whereas newer, high-efficiency washing machine models use less than 28 gallons of water per load. (EPA, 2008)

The typical single-family suburban household uses at least 30 percent of their water outdoors for irrigation. Some experts estimate that more than 50 percent of landscape water use goes to waste due to evaporation or runoff caused by overwatering!
Consider installing a drip irrigation system to water your lawn and garden. These systems use between 20 to 50 percent less water than conventional in-ground sprinkler systems. They are also much more efficient than conventional sprinklers because no water is lost to wind, runoff, and evaporation. (EPA, 2008)

Garbage vs. Recycling

It's no secret our country has an overflowing, surmounting garbage problem. As I drive to and from work I pass what use to be the landfill on the outskirts of town, but now it is right in the center of the growing metroplex. Dump trucks drive in non-stop throughout the day and unload mounds and mounds of trash. The landfill has turned into a gradually rising mountain. When will they stop? What can this land ever be used for again? From time to time I see them spread out the trash on a spread of land and swarms of birds come to find their dinner. It's really quite incredible what we have created.

Until some new invention is created that can evaporate trash into thin air, most of us know that we MUST step up and do what we can now by recycling. It is the only way we can help reduce waste. In the next several blogs we will be touchingon specific ways to recycle, but for now here are some of the most recent statistics on garbage and recycling:

•Each person creates about 4.7 pounds of waste every single day
•In the US 33.4% of solid waste is either recycled or composted, 12.6% is burned in combustion facilities and 54% makes it's way into landfills
•In 2007 99% of lead acid batteries were recycled, 54% of paper and paperboard were recycled, 64% of yard trimmings are recycled and nearly 35% of metals were recycled
•The amount of recycling in 2007 saved the energy equivalent of 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline and prevented the release of carbon dioxide of approximately 35 million cars
•The number of landfills in the US are decreasing while their size is increasing. In 1998 there were 8,000 landfills but only 1,754 in 2007
•Each ton of mixed paper that is recycled can save the energy equivalent to 185 gallons of gasoline
•Approximately 8,660 curbside recycling programs exist in the United States
•There are about 3,510 community composting programs in the United States
•Disposal of waste to landfills has decreased from 89% in 1980 to 54% in 2007
•Recycling 1 ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent of 1,665 gallons of gasoline
•In 2007 the United States recycled and composted 85 million tons of the 254 million tons of municipal solid waste created