To everyone freaking out about the water use for the ice bucket challenge. ~ Jackie Hueftle

The average person uses 70 gallons of water/day. Flushing a toilet can use up to 7 gallons of water. Showers can use up to 10 gallons/minute. A bath uses up to 50 gallons. A top load washer uses up to 60 gallons. The dishwasher uses 15 for a normal load, and by hand you use up to 30. You can use 10 gallons of water brushing your teeth if you don’t turn the tap off.

If you are seriously that concerned consider taking a shorter shower, cause 1 minute shorter for one day and you’ve offset the single 5 gallon bucket someone poured over their head.

If the bucket pouring happens over grass, it’s not even a waste of water.

Also, it’s an effective viral campaign, at least from an awareness standpoint. I say good on ’em.

~

Editor’s note: Love the gist of this. A lot of nitpicky points, but…amen. I take three minute showers, and toss water from occasional baths in my backyard (that’s xeriscaped as all should be in desert climate, is never watered). PS: By hand, with a bowl, you can use hardly anything and dishwashers Made in China are shipped all over the world, hardly last a few years and are generally not well recycled. PPS: I’m all for folks enjoying meat, but if you want to save tons of water, go vegan. PPPS: grass is almost always a waste of water, and isn’t native or appropriate, and there’s other more harmonious options that still provide for a cushy surface. Also, we Americans apply thousands of tons of toxic chemicals to grass…it’s nutso.   Relephant read:

Five Easy Ways to Save Water at Home. 

10 Ways to Save the World while Naked. ~ 

“Take action, take your clothes off.”