Green tips to save water

Sustainability tip of the fortnight

We hope you have been enjoying our fortnightly sustainability tips, brought to you our student environmental group: The Green Team.  They are committed to enhancing the sustainability of the Northcote High School community, and to spreading awareness of the simple actions that can help to preserve our planet. Here is the third in the series.

Saving water around the home

There are so many simple ways to reduce water consumption around your home, which will benefit both the environment and save you money. Installing water tanks to reuse grey water is the best way to save on water, but other easy and cheap options include:

1. Take shorter showers and use water-efficient shower heads
2. Make sure you turn off the tap while brushing your teeth
3. Ensure you have dual-flush toilets installed
4. Use white goods with high water efficiency ratings
5. Fill your sink to wash dishes rather than letting the tap run, or only scrape food off dishes before putting them into a dishwasher
6. Check pipes/taps for leaks often, and fix any issues quickly
7. Only water the garden when it really needs it, and ideally reuse water use in the bathroom/kitchen for this purpose (e.g. keep a bucket in the sink to save the water that runs while waiting for the water to turn hot)
8. Sweep paths and drives rather than hosing them down whenever possible
9. Wash cars and bikes in the yard if possible so the water runoff going into the garden not down the drain.

Using all of these tips in your house could easily halve your overall water consumption.

For more information see: http://yourhome.gov.au/water/reducing-water-demand