Five Ways to Appreciate Water

On average, Americans use about 80-100 gallons of water per day—and that’s just what comes from showers, baths, laundry, dishes, and other conventional household activities. With so little effort needed to turn on our faucets and enjoy clean, filtered water, it’s easy to take fresh water for granted.

Here are five ways you can show your appreciation for water:

1. Eat Vegetarian (or Vegan) for the Day

Water plays an integral part in all aspects of food production, from irrigating fields to processing harvests. But some foods—like beef and other animal products—use more water than others. In fact, it takes about 440 gallons of freshwater to produce one pound of boneless beef in the U.S. To use beef as an example, if each person in the United States ate 1 pound of beef less per year, it could save more than 144 billion gallons of water!

2. Reuse Cooking Water for Plants

The last time you boiled your pasta or vegetables, what did you do with the water? Like most, you may have poured it down the drain. But did you know you can get double the use out of your water by collecting it and reusing it to water your plants? Not only that, but the starches from the pasta or the vitamins and minerals leeched out of your vegetables can provide your plants with additional nutrients. Just remember to let the water cool off before reusing it so you don’t scorch your garden.

3. Set Up a Rainwater Capture System

Capturing rainwater can be as simple as collecting rain runoff from your gutters into a barrel or as complex as connecting an elaborate catchment area to your home’s plumbing system. Regardless of how you choose to capture rainwater, you’ll help conserve your local supply of treated fresh water as well as preventing soil erosion and runoff pollution—how’s that for a three-in-one positive impact?