About 60 percent of a home’s water usage comes from the bathroom. Want to incorporate green living into your bathroom but not sure where to begin? There are numerous ways to conserve water and energy in your bathroom; thanks to an interactive diagram provided by National Geographic’s Green Guide, you can view exactly where you can conserve and go green in the bathroom here.
For more in-depth tips, here’s a breakdown of the areas to focus on in your bathroom:
- Bath/Shower: While you might think taking a bath uses less water than a shower because the water isn’t constantly running in a bath, it actually takes about 70 gallons of water to fill up a bathtub. You only use 10 to 25 gallons in a five-minute shower. Low-flow showerheads are readily available now, which release less water at a time. By replacing your showerhead with a head that releases 2.5 gallons per minute instead of the average 4.5, you could save 20,000 gallons of water per year!
- Faucet: Faucets can waste up to five gallons of water per minute. To decrease this number, attach an aerator to your faucet, which could decrease your gallons per minute from 1 to 2.75 gallons. Regardless, while you brush your teeth and wash your face, turn the water off. Only run it while you are directly using it.
- Toilets: Toilets account for about 26 percent of water usage in a home, and the older your models are, the more water they use. If you replace a toilet from 1992 or older, you could save up to 25,000 gallons of water per year! Newer toilets have multiple options, such as dual flushes with a low-flow flush for liquids and a more powerful flush for solids. Composting toilets and no-mix toilets are two other options. When choosing a toilet, look for ones with an EPA WaterSense label.
- Toilet paper: The United States uses 100 million tons of paper per year, and toilet paper is a large contributor. Look for paper that is recycled or thin and easily biodegradable. Use fewer squares at each sitting.
- Leaky pipes: Toilets and faucets often contain leaky pipes, which waste up to 11,000 gallons of water. Fixing leaky pipes will save water and money, helping your bank account and the environment. To test for a leaky toilet, drop some food coloring into the tank and see if it appears in the bowl without flushing.
For more interactive diagrams and exact ways to cut costs in other rooms, click here.
All of these statistics were taken from National Geographic’s Green Guide.