Tag Archives: water waste

Gallons of Water Wasted Per Day

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For this week’s bog topic, I thought it’d be interesting to reach out to my friends and see how many gallons of water that they believe that they waste a day. Water waste is a huge issue when it comes to sustainability across the globe. Water can be wasted in many different ways and I feel that is often over looked. For example, keeping the water running when you brush your teeth, taking too long of showers, pouring out drinking water, etc. After reaching out to 10 of my friends, I put the data into a bar graph, which is pasted below;

The range of answers is quite obvious as one of my friend’s stated that she doesn’t waste any water, meanwhile, another one of my friend’s claimed that she wastes 20 gallons of water a day. By asking my friends this question, it was intended to make them think of all of the ways that they waste water and in return think of the ways that they can reduce water waste. Making these small changes can have a big impact on our globe.

2 Charts That Relate to Sustainability

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For this Blog assignment, I made 2 charts. The first chart is a scatter plot chart. The second chart is a line chart. I inserted the links to my charts at the bottom because I can’t figure out how to insert the charts on this blog post.

For the first chart, I found that the average family wastes 180 gallons of water per week. I got this from the link below. I took that number and multiplied it by 4 to find out how much they waste in a month. I multiplied the number of gallons wasted in a month and multiplied it by 2 then 3 then 4 all the way up to twelve to see how much water is wasted for each month in a year. My first chart shows how many gallons of water the average family wastes in a year.

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

For my second chart, I found out how many pounds of food are wasted by the average American in one month. I got this number from the first link below. I multiplied 20 by 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 12 to find the amount of food wasted for each month.

How Much Food Are You Wasting?

 

Chart 1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-jinw_hxVzHjQrjhTdICHVJsv8g13ahH0ajJmawfEXU/edit?usp=sharing

Chart 2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qin9nFouNjJ76o2g7SPIu-Onwz_c8ffmmFuWSRN7rSc/edit?usp=sharing

How Much Water Do We Waste Daily?

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Only about 0.3% of Earth’s water is safe/accessible to drink, and still we waste so much of it with simple, everyday tasks (NGWA). Turning the faucet off when brushing your teeth has become common practice among the general population, but what else could be wasting water? In his article, Adam Hadhazy seeks out the least wasteful option when it comes to household chores. For example, he writes that hand-washing dishes (while it may seem like the more sustainable choice) can use anywhere between 20 – 40 gallons of water, while most dishwashers only use about 10 gallons per load. He also explains that going to a professional car wash wastes less water than washing it yourself, with car wash garages using up to 45 gallons of water per car and doing it yourself using between 80 and 140 gallons (more than triple going to a garage) (Hadhazy). Additionally, car wash garages are more sustainable and environmentally friendly, as they recycle water and are under a U.S. mandate to direct wastewater to treatment plants to avoid polluting nearby water sources. Spreading more knowledge about how much water we actually use in our day to day lives could make such a difference in when it comes to changing the general populations’ attitude regarding climate change. When you understand just how much water you’re wasting while washing the dishes or doing laundry, the problem becomes real and more relevant.

 

Hadhazy, A. 2008. Top 10 Water Wasters: From Washing Dishes to Watering the Desert. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-water-wasters/

 

Mullen, K. 2021. Information on Earth’s Water. National Groundwater Association. https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/About-groundwater/information-on-earths-water

Water Waste in Agriculture

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The agriculture industry utilizes the largest portion of the water supply within that supply water is lost between poor irrigation, contamination, and poor management. Farmers and large agricultural plants have to establish water efficiency levels in order to reduce waste. Reduce, but not eliminate. Farms make up about 70% of all the water consumed globally and within that 70%, 30% is actually used and the other 40% is lost in waste. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the agriculutre industry (surplus) the usage of fertilizers, pesticides, and other pest replent techniques that are used on crops water becomes highly contaminated. This water can’t be reused without treatment and that is costly. The untreated waste water is then transported elsewhere but can still impose a threat to said environment. On the brighter side of things there are many ways in which farmers in the agriculture industry can reduce waste water. Such as efficient irrigation, capturing and storing water, crop rotations, and composting mulch.

Water is Life

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Water. Water is an essential part of human life on Earth. We as humans are made of water, use water everyday, and need water to survive. It helps regulate all of our functioning parts of our complex bodies and ensures benefits of living a healthy life. Just as humans are extremely dependent on water, so are many other species such as the group of livestock. One animal in particular is cows, which are heavily connected to greenhouse gasses and Co2 emissions. Depending on the temperature that a cow is living in, the weight of the cow, and whether it is producing milk or not, correlates to the amount of water it needs daily. It has been estimated that for cows, “Daily water intake may vary from 3 to 30 gallons per day depending on age, body size (weight), stage of production, and the environment (mainly air temperature).” With an increase in temperature or lactating cows, this requires more clean water for them. But to put the stat of 3 to 30 gallons in perspective, every human is advised to drink 8 cups of water per day, which is half a gallon of water. So although cows are much larger than humans, their daily water intake is extremely large and crucial for them.

Water is an essential to everyday life but there is a ton of water being wasted annually in the United States. An article published by the Washington Post states, “The incredibly stupid way that Americans waste 1 trillion gallons of water each year.” 1 Trillion gallons of water is another worldly large number and the ways depicted that Americans waste water are water leakage, hoses, and irrigation systems: all are not needed waste methods of water. One way to prevent the wasting of water would be to be more aware of how you are potentially wasting water. This can be from fixing leaks immediately, shutting off your sprinkler system when not needed, and using less water related activities such as dishwashing and laundry. If there was to be less water wasted, the number conducted through the Washington Post of 1 trillion gallons, could be minimized by millions and millions. Not to mention saving water waste, but this can save thousands of dollars spent by homes and businesses.

One method of intaking water that is very popular is through bottled water. It is so popular because it is pre bottled, convenient, and can be disposed of. Although it is not economically and environmentally friendly, Americans live a fast paced life and want the fastest way to intake water. To put water bottle usage in perspective on Union College’s campus, let’s first say there are 2,200 undergraduate students. I’d say about half of the students here use plastic water bottles daily, so 1,100. If every student is drinking about 3 bottles a day, that’s 3,300 approximately, plastic water bottles. To calculate the amount of oil used to produce and ship the water to Union, I estimated around 15,000 gallons of fuel to get the water from Western states all the way to Union College.

 

References:

https://beef.unl.edu/amountwatercowsdrink

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

Water waste and solutions

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Water waste is a hugely important issue that is often overlooked. In many places, certainly more wealthy countries like the US, water is commonly taken for granted. For example, a leaky faucet may seem like no big deal, however in the long run it can be extremely wasteful. “One faucet leaking one drip per minute adds up to 34 gallons of water per year” (Washington Post). This is just for one leaky faucet; imagine how many gallons of water would be wasted with multiple leaky faucets across the United States and even in the world. Household leaks, including toilets and irrigation systems, can waste about 900 billion gallons of water annually which is a significant statistic. On average, each United States citizen wastes about 10 gallons of water a day due to leaks, most often without realizing it.

Some solutions to prevent this kind of water waste would be to make sure there is a proper irrigation system in place. If a system is installed correctly and managed properly, water waste can be reduced by 15%, or 7,600 gallons of water a year. This would make a major difference. However, there are some socioeconomic issues that come into play with the ability to reduce water waste. Some individuals that are less wealthy may not be able to afford proper irrigation system installment and certainly may not be able to keep up with management of the system if installed. There are things that can still be done regardless of socioeconomic status, such as taking shorter showers, only running full loads of laundry or dishes, and by turning off the faucet all the way after use. Also, all individuals are capable of looking for leaks in their pipes and even in their toilets to be aware if there is a problem and then take the necessary steps to reduce the leak or to fully fix it.

 

Works Cited

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

8 Ways to Reduce Your Water Waste

Water Waste and How to Combat it

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When people consider waste in regards to sustainability, they often consider physical garbage far before they consider water waste.  Water waste, however, is a major sustainability issue as, even though it doesn’t take the water out of the water cycle, but instead removes the water from being accessible and usable by humans.  It is also wasteful since it overly expends the energy used to deliver the water, such as in the overuse of the dishwasher or washing machine.   On the whole, water waste could lead to humans having less usable water readily available and can also take such water away from the environment.  As per the DOH, the average person wastes 30 gallons of water every day; some of this waste is due to human tasks, such as overly long showers and leaving faucets on while they are not being used.  Other reasons for water waste include issues such as unrepaired household leaks.  According to the EPA, the average household can waste 180 gallons of water a week from household leaks alone, which is 9,200 gallons of water wasted every year.  While this waste is very common, there are many methods that people can implement in their day to day life to combat this issue.  First and foremost would be to check their households for the aforementioned leaks and have them repaired to prevent any further issue.  Other simple tasks include turning off the tap when brushing teeth, which would save 8 gallons of water a day, and therefore 2,290 gallons of water a year.  One last common occurrence that would save water in the average household is running the dishwasher only when completely full; this alone would save 320 gallons of water per household per year.  Water waste is a common, overlooked issue, but by changing the way we implement some household tasks, we can save many gallons of water from being wasted every year.

 

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts

https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/09/23/does-wasting-household-water-remove-it-from-the-water-cycle/#:~:text=Rather%2C%20wasting%20water%20hurts%20humans,away%20from%20the%20natural%20ecosystem.

Wasting water and resources is much easier than you may think…

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Humans and animals drink a lot of water daily. It is critical to our survival, but the way that we choose to drink water has a huge impact on sustainability. An example of animal consumption of water is a cow. A cow can consume up to 100 gallons of water per day. One huge form of water waste is the production of clothing. It takes about 2700 liters of water to make the average t-shirt, which is clearly a huge amount of water waste to make one t-shirt. One pair of jeans takes about 7600 liters of water to produce, which means that it takes 10,300 liters of water to make a simple outfit. This also means that thrifting even just one outfit will save about 10,300 liters of water! It would be even better if people kept thrifting to decrease the amount of clothing production that has to occur around the world, therefore decreasing the waste of water. We can all wear clothes that are already in the world instead of buying new ones as a more sustainable option. 

Additionally, I think that bottled water is so popular because it is convenient. I know that my family members who use plastic water bottles just think that they make life easier because they can throw them out when they are done and they do not need to take care or keep track of a reusable water bottle. The average person drinks about four water bottles per day and because there are about 2,700 people (about 2,100 students and 600 faculty and staff members) on Union College’s campus, there are about 10,800 bottles of water consumed on the campus. Water bottles are about one liter of liquid, meaning that I estimate that 10,800 liters of water are consumed on Union’s campus. It takes 1 liter of oil to create four water bottles. I estimate that the amount of oil needed to produce the 10,800 bottles of water would be 2,700 liters of oil, which means that a lot of fossil fuels need to be burned for this production. Transporting the water also uses a huge amount of oil. It depends where the water comes from, but a ten hour plane ride uses 150,000 liters of oil which would clearly add to the fossil fuel emissions used to produce water bottles by a large amount. 

 

Citations: https://www.peta.org/features/california-drought-stats/

https://greenactioncentre.ca/tip-of-the-week/14-ways-to-reduce-water-waste/

https://blog.arcadia.com/how-many-water-bottles-does-one-reusable-bottle-save/

Wasted Water and What We Can Do

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Water is critical to all forms of life on our planet.  Without water, humans would not survive.  However, based on the statistics, it doesn’t seem that we place as much importance on water as we should.  In the US alone, a family can waste 180 gallons of water per week.  Even something as seemingly simple as letting the water faucet run for 5 minutes while washing dishes can waste 10 gallons of water.  As of 2015, each American was estimated to use an average of 82 gallons per day.  This wasted water has real affects on the United States, with 40 out of the 50 US states expecting some form of water shortage in the next decade, as was reported by a 2014 Government Accountability Report.  For something so vital to our very being, mankind sure doesn’t treat water that way.  The wasting of so much water annually can have serious ramifications on future generations’ water supply and we can even see some of these water supply issues faced today.

Water wastage not only harms ourselves and the environment but also harms people financially.  It is estimated that more than $380 could be saved annually solely by using WaterSense labelled fixtures and ENERGY STAR certified appliances.  Despite the negative statistics there are ways to manage and curtail the current wasting of water.  Apart from using certified appliances, doing certain small tasks such as turning off the faucet while brushing can have massive affects in the long run.  By turning off the tap while brushing, roughly 8 gallons of water per day could be saved.  Just simply turning off the water while brushing for 2 minutes could potentially save 2,920 gallons of water annually.

There is no one easy solution to stop the current situation of water wastage, but by being aware of the problem and actively looking for small ways to cut your own wasting of water, massive changes can be made slowly over time.

Works Cited:

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/06/06/189192870/when-you-waste-food-youre-wasting-tons-of-water-too