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Are You Still Running the Taps?
What if I told you that by making a very small sacrifice each day, you could benefit the planet and your wallet? That’s something we can all feel good about, right? A good place to start is evaluating our personal water consumption. What we can directly control.
It is difficult to estimate how much water an individual uses while washing their hands. Flow-rates of different faucet types vary wildly and so does the amount of time people devote to washing their hands and the frequency in which they do it. I know that in my household, running the tap for a consistent 20-seconds (the ideal hand-washing time recommended by the CDC) would pump out approximately 4 liters of water (~1 gallon).
If I were, let’s say, to be a little crazy and shut off the tap for the 16 seconds while my hands were out of water lathering soap, simple math says I could reduce the water consumption of this activity by 80%. This is not a trick. It really is that straight forward.
By the way, my philosophy is not to attack people, but to educate them. If you are a habitual tap-runner, I am not here to reprimand you. If you think you could appreciate a new eco-savvy challenge in your life, then please keep reading.
If your taps are anything like mine, the simple act of shutting them off while washing your hands could literally save thousands of…
