Purchasing Decisions To Help With the Mega Drought

(Photo – angeles_nf)

We are officially in a mega drought!

By Cheryl Auger

Governor Newsom has now asked for us to voluntarily reduce our water consumption 15%. Some ways to do this are obvious like reducing the duration and frequency of our showers, maximizing the number of times we wear our clothes to reduce laundry, and plumbing our grey water to irrigate our landscape.

But what’s not so obvious are the purchasing choices we make and how those can also help save water. A lot of water is used to produce plastic and gasoline. In fact, 97 gallons of water are used to produce one gallon of gasoline and 22 gallons are used to create a pound of plastic, which might not seem like a lot until you realize how much plastic the world produces. So, if we can reduce our use or reliance on plastic and gas, together we can save a significant amount of water for drinking, growing foods and fighting fires.

Purchasing choices

Replacements such as soap bars for body washes and dish soap bars for dish detergents are great options since they eliminate the plastic container and significantly reduce the water and weight of the product. This means less gas is required to transport it. Laundry sheets are also great. Laundry sheets are made of corn starch and 60 loads of laundry come in a paper envelope with vegetable ink on it. The reduction of plastic, water, and gas used in this and/or to support this product is significant.  For the same reasons, tooth tablets and mouthwash tablets are also preferable.

The other advantage of these products is there is no plastic bottle to recycle away and there is no need to use the gas to bring it to the landfill, sorting facility, recycling facility or transport to Asia.  You don’t even have to bring the plastic to your waste bin. Wool balls also help reduce drying times in the dryer which is good for all dryers since even the electric companies use varying sources of fuels to generate electricity which all use water.  Buying things that are locally made also reduces water because less gas is required for shipping. Sustainable materials like paper and boxes should also be selected over plastic.  While these tips won’t save us from another wildfire, hopefully they will leave enough water to fight it.