This post has been inspired from Apartment Therapy Re-Nest's post on Kill Your Plumbing. (And yes, I borrowed their photo too!)

I always turn off the tap while brushing my teeth, washing my hands, etc. And I've recently started filling a mason jar with water while I'm waiting for it to get warm enough to wash my face, and then use that water on my plants. But I can do more!

Here in Victoria, we pipe all of our grey and black water out to the ocean. All grey and black water means is the water that's from your sinks (grey) and from your toilet (black). I won't even get into the ecological consequences of having everything we put down our drain going into the ocean - that's for another day. (If you want to know more, check out POOP: People Opposed to Outfall Polution for some good info). But just the sheer fact that water going down the drain has (a) not being touched by anything (ie, waiting for warm water to come) or (b) has been used to wash hands or dishes (using biodegradable soap, of course!). Those hardly justify -in my mind- the idea that this water is useless now.

So my question is why are we wasting this water? There are severe water shortages happening globally, but here in Canada we feel so disconnected from those issues. I suppose it's because we hold an estimated 20% of the fresh, accessible water in the world. Which means we should take action now and use our water more wisely!

How?

I want to put in a Guerrilla Greywater system in my home -- they have a specific page for renters too. There's a woman I know who's disconnected her kitchen and bathroom plumbing so the water drains into a bucket that she uses to water her plants and lawn. Providing you're not washing anything toxic, plants and soil naturally breakdown the chemicals in that water. Regardless, it's Reducing and Reusing!

And that my friends, is something we all need to get better at doing.

Posted by Jen at 1:29 PM