You turn on the shower, eager to wash away the day’s worries, but wait -- it’s freezing! Annoyed, you let the shower run and wait for it to warm up. Ten minutes later, steam clouds the mirrors, indicating that the water is now hot, just how you like it. At that moment, letting the water run for ten minutes might not seem like a major issue, but over time, the amount of water you waste has detrimental effects on the environment.
According to the 2016 Residential End Uses of Water Study, the average American uses about 15.8 gallons of water per shower. During each shower, 3.16 of those 15.8 gallons of water are essentially lost, since 20% of the water from each water is estimated to be lost through waste. Now, this may not seem like a lot of water. However, inferring that the average family has 4 members, each household is estimated to be wasting 4,613.6 gallons of water per year. Another major source of water waste are leaks -- according to the 2016 Residential End Uses of Water Study, the average household wastes around 17 gallons of water per day due to indoor leaks. These leaks can be visible and easy to see, such as a drippy faucet, while others may be hard to discern. The ones that are hard to notice often end up going undetected for long periods of time. Another common cause of water waste is the washing machine. ENERGY STAR®️, a program dedicated to making energy use more efficient, estimates that the average American family washes around 300 loads of laundry per year. This adds up to around 12,000 gallons of water used every year.
How does all this waste affect the environment? To start off, humans tend to separate themselves from the animal world. Yes, we are more sophisticated and yes, we live in a more advanced society, but we are still part of the same biosphere. We utilize the same resources and have the same needs. Therefore, it is crucial that we master regulating our use of our precious resources, as we are not the only ones in need of it. In this case, humans are not the only species that require freshwater to live. Thus, as we begin to take increasingly more and more freshwater from aquatic environments to supply our needs, we take away from marine life in those environments. This can ultimately lead to the endangerment of marine species. In addition to harming marine life by attempting to have as much of the freshwater resources as we can, we take water away from farmers and agriculture. This ultimately can lead to food shortages and scarcity of water for livestock. The establishment of aquifers and groundwater reservoirs were made to ensure us with water for long term availability. However, as time progresses, our rapidly growing global population coupled with advancements in standards of living cause the demand for freshwater to grow larger and larger. Consequently, we are beginning to obtain water from aquifers and groundwater on a daily basis rather than once a while, ultimately defeating their whole purpose. The fact that we take out more water than the reservoirs can generate expedites the problem. Furthermore, the water we drink and use is not the same water that we harness. Water must go through a process called filtration in order to remove all toxins and to ensure that it is safe enough for us to use. Now, this process is time-consuming, costly, and consumes quite a lot of energy. In addition to filtration, the process of extracting and transporting water only adds to the cost and time. These processes require the burning of fossil fuels which generate harmful byproducts, such as carbon dioxide, that pollute our air. Our growing demand for water and the processes of water fundamentally establish a vicious cycle because as we demand more water, we must extract more and more of it from our reservoirs. Then, we must burn fossil fuels which in turn produce toxic chemicals that pollute Earth’s atmosphere. In summary, we end up in a lose-lose situation.
How can you help? You can begin by reducing the amount of water you use daily. For instance, collect the water from your shower as you wait for the water to warm up. You can then use this water to water plants. You can also cut down on the length of your showers. To maximize the conservation of water, it is recommended to cap your shower time to five minutes. If five minutes do not suffice, another thing that you can do is turn off the water when you are soaping and shampooing. Another way to conserve water is by lessening the number of times you use the washing machine. Do not use the washing machine if you need to only wash one article of clothing. In those cases, it is more efficient to hand wash your clothes. In fact, you can even wash your clothes during your shower time! Though these conservation techniques are effective and easy to follow, the best thing for you to do is invest in some environmentally friendly appliances. For example, showerheads with a WaterSense®️ label indicate that these showerheads were designed to use no more than 2 gallons of water per minute, effectively decreasing the amount of water used per shower. However, despite the fact that less water is used, the user is able to still have a pleasant showering experience. Another example is the high-efficiency washing machines. As the name suggests, these washing machines clean clothes with less water. To be specific, these new and improved washers use only 15 to 30 gallons of water per load as opposed to the traditional washer that wastes 29 to 45 gallons of water per load.
Water is our most precious resource and without it, life ceases to exist. We must work hard to conserve it and in turn maintain the availability of it as well as prevent ourselves from harming the environment.
Works Cited
Heatworks. “How Much Water Does the Average American Waste?” Myheatworks, 24 October 2017.
Homewaterworks. “Crisp, Clean Clothes Without the Waste.” home-water-works, Alliance for Water Efficiency, 2011.
Homewaterworks. “Leaks.” home-water-works, Alliance for Water Efficiency, 2011.
Homewaterworks. “Showering to Savings.” home-water-works, Alliance for Water Efficiency, 2011.
Homewaterworks. “Toilets.” home-water-works, Alliance for Water Efficiency, 2011.
Mohsenin, Ava. “Why Wasting Water Is Even Worse for the Environment Than You Think.” HuffPost, Verizon Media, 22 July 2017.
Portland Water Bureau. “Washing Machines Fact Sheet.” portlandoregon.gov, 2020.
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