How to Green Your Water

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1. No drips

A dripping faucet can waste 20 gallons of water a day. A leaking toilet can use 90,000 gallons of water in a month. Get out the wrench and change the washers on your sinks and showers, or get new washerless faucets. Keeping your existing equipment well maintained is probably the easiest and cheapest way to start saving water.

2. Install new fixtures

New, low-volume or dual flush toilets, low-flow showerheads , water-efficient dishwashers and clothes washing machines can all save a great deal of water and money. Aerators on your faucets can significantly reduce water volume; water-saving showerheads can cut the volume of water used down to 1.2 gallons per minute or less, and some even have a “pause button” to let you stop the water while soaping up or shampooing. Our interns recently pointed out that “spending about $30 on low-flow showerheads and faucets is estimated to save 45 gallons of that 260 gallons of water [used in a typical household per day], almost 18% of your usage. Splurging on a low-flow toilet could save another 50-80 gallons of water a day. Together, those changes nearly cut in half the household's daily use, saving a considerable amount of water – and passing that savings on to your water bill, as well as your water heating bill.”

3. Cultivate good water habits

All the water that goes down the drain, clean or dirty, ends up mixing with raw sewage, getting contaminated, and meeting the same fate. Try to stay aware of this precious resource disappearing and turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving and always wash laundry and dishes with full loads. When washing dishes by hand, fill up the sink and turn off the water. Take shorter showers or, as the old joke goes, shower with a friend: Treehugger TV shows you how. To put things in perspective, take a quick look at your next water bill when it arrives. It probably won’t be costing you too much, but the average household consumes multiple thousands of gallons each month. See if you can make this number go down. If you’re the graphing type, go nuts.

4. Stay off the bottle

By many measures, bottled water is a scam. In most first-world countries, the tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. (You can look up your water in the National Tap Water Quality Database) Taste tests have shown that in many municipalities, tap water actually tastes better. Bottled water is not as well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly pure. A four-year study of bottled water in the U.S. conducted by NRDC found that one-fifth of the 103 water products tested contained synthetic organic chemicals such as the neurotoxin xylene and the possible carcinogen and neurotoxin styrene. (Grist) Much bottled water doesn’t come from a “Artesian springs” and is just tap water anyhow. (Coca-Cola adds salt to its Dasani water to make it taste better, just like fast food.) Not only is it more expensive per gallon than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint from its transportation, and the discarded bottles are a blight. It’s no wonder that some people even think it’s a sin. If you want to carry your water with you, get a bottle and fill it. (Look here for some advise on durable, non-toxic container options.) If your water at home tastes funny, try an activated charcoal or ceramic filter. Here is a comparison of home-use water filters from Grist.

5. Go beyond the lawn

Naturalize it using locally appropriate plants that are hardy and don’t need a lot of water. If you have to water, do it during the coolest part of the day or at night to minimize evaporation. Here is a useful calculator to figure out landscape water use. Xeriscaping is a method of landscaping that utilizes only native and low water plants. It is an especially appropriate approach for states like California and Arizona where people often plant lawns like they live in Florida despite living in the desert.

6. Harvest your rainwater

Put a rain barrel on your downspouts and use this water for irrigation. Rain cisterns come in all shapes and sizes ranging from larger underground systems to smaller, freestanding ones. Some even glow!

7. Harvest your greywater

Water that has been used at least once but is still clean enough for other jobs is called greywater. Water from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers are the most common household examples. (Toilet water is often called “blackwater” and needs a different level of treatment before it can be reused.) Greywater can be recycled with practical plumbing systems like the Aqus, or with simple practices such as emptying the fish tank in the garden instead of the sink. The bottom line? One way or another, avoid putting water down the drain when you can use it for something else.

8. At the car wash

Car washes are often more efficient than home washing and treat their water rather than letting it straight into the sewer system. But check to make sure that they clean and recycle the water. Better yet, try the waterless car wash. If you live in Manchester, the Levenshulme Baptist Church is recycling water from its Baptistery pool for charity car washes http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/baptismal_water.php .

9. Keep your eyes open

Report broken pipes, open hydrants, and excessive waste. Don’t be shy about pointing out leaks to your friends and family members, either. They might have tuned out the dripping sound a long time ago.

10. Don’t spike the punch

Water sources have to be protected. In many closed loop systems like those in cities around the Great Lakes, waste water is returned to the Lake that fresh water comes out of. Don’t pour chemicals down drains, or flush drugs down toilets; it could come back in diluted form in your water.

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1. Ease up on the meat

To produce 1 kilogram of boneless beef, according to a definitive 2004 UNESCO study on the "water footprint of nations," it takes 6.5 kilograms of grain, 36 kilograms of roughage (coarse grains and pasture), and 155 litres of drinking water (Now Magazine). In The Food Revolution, John Robbins calculates that a vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat eating diet requires 4,000 gallons per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.

2. Get serious about greywater recovery

Greywater recycling schemes range from large building systems to small home retrofits to simple low-tech recycling practices. TreeHugger has written about the Toilet Lid Sink which very sensibly lets you rinse your hands with the water that is filling the tank. Saves space too! The Aqus system does much the same thing but in an under-the-sink way. The Ban Beater lets you easily suck up bathwater and deliver it through a hose to your garden. As our “Weird” Eco Habits contest has elucidated, a woman in Hiroshima not only saves water, but gets her exercise while moving bathwater by bucket from the tub to the laundry. "Three rinse cycles of clean water just seems such a waste."

3. Start with good green design

Read Inhabitat’s Green Building 101 to see what architects can do to reduce water use. Building a house from scratch? Plumb it for greywater recovery with separate pipes from the toilets and the rest of the house. Design the roof for decent rainwater collection or incorporate green roofs, which mitigate and filter roof runoff. Put in big cisterns to hold water through the entire summer. Use permeable paving to let water soak through to the ground instead of washing away. If you or your architect is feeling like pushing the envelope, consider using a “living machine” to filter grey (or even black) water with natural plants and other organisms. And remember, if you live in the desert (California, we’re looking in your direction!), think twice before planting grass.

4. Get involved

In the year 2000, the United Nations established that 2.64 billion people had inadequate access to sanitation. This value represented 44 percent of the global population, but in Africa and Asia approximately half of the population had no access whatsoever to sanitation. Just a Drop reports that: “Every 10 seconds a child dies because of dirty water. 4 million children under five die terrible deaths each year due to water-born diseases. 1.1 billion children have no clean water close to their homes. Many children share the water they use to drink, cook and bathe with their livestock.” Matt Damon set up H2OAfrica after he "saw firsthand the effects of one of the largest public health issues of our time, the world water crisis which is at its worst in Africa." And the United Church of Canada has started a campaign to control the spread of bottled water.

5. Location, location, location

Many of us live in places where we cannot survive sustainably. You can’t live in Arizona without air conditioning and water resources that millions are trying to share. Perhaps we should be making our choices about where we live by considering the ability of the land to actually support us without artificial means. Florida's reservoirs below and above ground are badly depleted and becoming briny with saltwater seepage. The water shortage is so bad in parts of the state, despite a recent tropical storm, that people have been hauled into court and fined for violating strict water rationing standards. Some major American cities in the Southwest, including El Paso, San Antonio and Albuquerque, could go dry in 10 to 20 years.

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1. Much of the world gets by on 2.5 gallons of water per day. The average American uses 400 gallons per day, 30% of which is for outdoor uses and half for watering lawns- 7 billion gallons per day. (EPA)

2. Worldwide, 70% of water is used for farming and most of it wasted through primitive irrigation systems that are only 40% effective (Wired). According to a 2002 article by Lester Brown, aquifers are depleting all over the world—in China by 2-3 metres per year. In the US, the Ogallala aquifer is shrinking rapidly. In India, aquifers are going down by 3 metres per year, in Mexico by 3.3 meters per year.

3. Worldwide water shortages could prove disastrous. Already, major conflicts such as Darfur have been connected to shortages of, and lack of access to, clean water. There are currently 263 rivers and countless aquifers that either cross or demarcate international political boundaries, according to the Atlas of International Freshwater Agreement, and 90 percent of countries in the world must share these water basins with at least one or two other states. For more information, Marq de Villiers on Water Wars of the Near Future.

4. Water expert Peter Gleick provides some numbers on the waste of water in American agriculture: “we use something like 1,430 gallons per capita in the United States. Only 100 gallons of that is household use per person.”

5. Unicef estimate that unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88 percent of deaths from diarrhea, or more than 1.5 million of the 1.9 million children under five who perish from diarrhea each year. This amounts to 18 percent of all under-five deaths and means that more than 4,000 children are dying every day as a result of diarrhoeal diseases.

6. Unicef also estimates that 11.3 billion dollars are required to provide basic levels of service for drinking and waste water in Africa and Asia. Amount spent on bottled water in the First World: $35 billion.

7. Making PET bottles for water uses up 1.5 million barrels of crude oil, enough to fuel 100,000 American cars for a year. 2.7 tons of plastic are used to bottle water. 86% become garbage or litter. (Earth Policy Institute)

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1. Where does it come from?

The water cycle is the process by which water circulates around, over, and through the Earth. It is driven by the sun, evaporating water from the oceans, rising through the atmosphere and condensing as pure water or snow. About 505,000 cubic kilometers of water fall on the earth each year, 398,000 over the oceans. The pure water is stored as ice, as water in lakes, and in aquifers that have taken thousands of years to fill. 97% of water is stored in the oceans; 2% in the ice caps; only 1% is in lakes, groundwater or other useable sources. We draw on surface water (lakes and rivers) subsurface (groundwater through pumping) and a small amount is made (very expensively) through desalination. Read more about the water cycle at Wikipedia.

2. What is done to it?

Sometimes very little. Where the water sources are pure, like in New York City, very little is actually necessary. Other municipalities put their water through a three stage system of Primary Treatment (collecting and screening), Secondary Treatment (removal of solids and contaminants using filters and coagulation), and Tertiary Treatment (carbon filtering and disinfection). It is then stored in reservoirs or water towers so that it can be gravity-fed through the system.

3. Is it really pure?

While the consensus is that, overall, tap water is better than bottled water for you and the environment, there are some concerns. Older houses and apartment buildings may have lead plumbing which can contaminate it via pipes, solder, and old brass fittings. There is also a growing convern about low levels of antibiotics from agriculture and people disposing of medication down the toilet. Gender-bender hormones from birth control pills, along with phthalates from vinyl, are entering the water system and changing the sex of fish http://www.raysapoint.com/contra.html , lowering the sperm count of men, and doubling the number of annual male breast reduction surgeries.

4. Where does it go?

Too often, waster is just dumped. Often it enters combined systems that are overwhelmed when it rains. Where there is sewage treatment it is of variable quality, but a properly run modern plant can produce results that are fairly effective. The systems are designed to mimic natural treatment processes where bacteria consume the organic contaminants, and it can then be returned to lakes or as groundwater. Unfortunately, in sub-Saharan Africa almost no waste water is treated; in Latin America only about 15% is. The price is paid in diarrhea, typhus and cholera.

The secret to saving water is a synthesis of good practices and good design. Keep an eye on the the TreeHugger archives for the latest methods and technologies.

1. Toilets

Dual-flush options are available from Caroma, and numerous others. This Argentine toilet design lets the sink water do the flushing.

Here we have a link to a review of low-flow toilets To learn about test methodology for low-flow toilets (you’ll never guess) and the results of the rigorous trials, look here (test results here).

Composting toilets that TreeHugger has covered include the Bio-lux, a pricey Japanese throne.

Here you’ll find a review of more composting toilet options.

The Propelair uses vacuum action to flush itself.

The Athena replacement handle saves water by controlling flush quantity.

Waterless urinals are made by many companies now, including Falcon and Waterless, and look here for a case study of the water saving potential of flushless urinals.

The TwoFlush can turn any standard toilet into a dual flush fixture.

2. Clothes washers

LG’s steam cleaning, front loading clothes washer boasts 35% less water consumption than a conventional model.

This clothes washer from Sanyo doesn’t use water at all, but creates ozone and fires it at your laundry.

This washer from Bosch has earned high marks from Energy Star, and the sleek and efficient Washerman was a winner in the Electrolux Design Competition.

Check out our eco-laundry tips here and green appliance comparison shopping here.

3. Dishwashers

4. Showerheads

Some showerheads that TreeHugger has investigated include: the Neco, the Tiara shower for two (or one, if you’d like), Bricor offers 1 gallon-per-minute heads, the Aqua Helix squeezes out an impressive .5 gallons per minute, and Real Goods has an affordable unit with a “pause” button. And if you have a tendency to lose yourself in the moment, a shower timer might also be a good idea.

5. Water heating

Point of use water heaters save water by delivering hot water almost immediately rather than making you wait for it while the tap runs. Some even use microwaves, and this Thermostatic fixture cuts the waiting time and looks sharp in the process. More solid tips on greener water heating can be found here.

6. Purifying water

7. Bottled water

If you have your doubts about the harm of everyday bottled water, wait until you see our coverage of strange waters: water that makes you skinny, water for dogs, water that is sung to and infused with good intentions, and water with gold in it. Some bottled waters like Biota and Jivita are now using containers made from cornstarch, also known as polylactic acid (PLA). While these are non-petroleum products and are, in theory biodegradable, they are not recyclable and most likely will never break down in your backyard compost pile. Some companies like Ethos and HtoO are doing constructive things with their profits, but they still are responsible for the many ecological impacts of bottled water.

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We can't even begin to scratch the surface of the resources available for making water use more Earth-friendly. Here are some starting points for insight and advise.

Energy Star has pages dedicated to clothes washers and dishwashers.

Peter Coombes, the Australian expert on rainwater research, has lots to offer here.

Rooftops to Rivers, an NRDC report on green Strategies for controlling storm water and sewer overflow.

Bottled Water—Pure Drink or Pure Hype? A massive 1999 NRDC study of the bottled water industry.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has a lengthy list of recommendations here.

Lester Brown wrote about how the world is running out of fresh water in 2000; it could have been written yesterday. See Grist's coverage.

Grist also ran a six part series on water privatization with Peter Cook and Maude Barlow.

Is it okay to drink bottled water? Ask Leo Hickman of The Guardian.

Books worth reading

The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson tells the story of how mapping Cholera deaths in 1854 London led back to a single water pump.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner tells the story of conflicts over water policy in the West and the resulting damage to the land, wildlife, and Indians.

Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, by Marq de Villiers.

Movies worth watching

Chinatown, the classic film about the politics of water in 1930s California.

The Man Who Fell to Earth: David Bowie looking for water, lots of it.

Thirst: A film that tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India, and the United States that are asking fundamental questions about water, the global commons, and human rights.

Water: Tragedy by the Ganges.

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