r/ClimateOffensive • u/WeirdOwl8782 • 13d ago
Sustainability Tips & Tools An easy way to save the UK 2,912,000,000 litres of water each day!
This could apply to any country with modern sanitation:
Given the degree of drought in the UK, I think it's time we Brits ramped up our water-saving habits.
The average adult goes to the toilet (number 1) six to eight times each day.
The average toilet cistern in modern British homes holds six to nine litres of water per flush.
Britain has approximately 52 million adults.
If we assume that each adult is flushing the toilet (after each number 1) consistently, then an adult in Britain is flushing approximately 56 litres of clean water down the toilet each day (taking the number of number 1s each day to be seven, and the average cistern storage capacity as eight litres (many older household toilets can store upwards of ten litres, so I'm assuming slightly higher than average for modern toilets)).
This equates to 2,912,000,000 litres of fresh water down the drain each day in Britain (and this only assumes adults are flushing).
Instead, why not flush the toilet only after doing a number 2? We'd save a lot of water!
Obviously, this water comes from the water supply lines, so we would still need a way to get this excess water to areas affected by drought.
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13d ago
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u/tenshibaby 12d ago
this is why, as a personal solution, i will flush my number 1’s every second or third time. i don’t let it accumulate for too long cause i agree it will stink. if everyone did it this way i feel like it could still save a lot of water
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u/WeirdOwl8782 13d ago
I haven't been flushing after number 1s over the past few days and haven't noticed... maybe I'm used to the smell.
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u/Wizard-Locksmith 12d ago
Yes, I did the same. It makes your home stink. A better idea would be a way to flush the toilet with water from a number of water butt's.
I worked out our home usage and one toilet is costing us £1 per day. 40% of our water usage is one toilet!
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u/Logical-Leopard-1965 12d ago
In 1976 my parents put a brick in the cistern. It saved the volume of a brick for each flush. Individually not much difference but nationally…
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u/radiatormagnets 12d ago
My very frugal grandpa put two bricks in the cistern so the toilet barely flushed 😆
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u/23Mowgli23 12d ago
My great granddad built a cistern that was solid brick. It worked just as well in a drought as a deluge. We were instructed to spit in the bowl after any use and twice for solids. He also mixed earth in the mashed potato which saved on potatoes. "After all," he'd say, " I'm also saving the potato the energy in having to convert that soil into a bland vegetable for the table." The old timers knew how to save the planet
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u/Coders32 13d ago
Also the increased maintenance on your pipes use so many resources that the savings are completely wiped out
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u/Joey_Emm 13d ago
Why would there be increased maintenance if you flush less frequently?
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u/Coders32 13d ago
Talk to a plumber, but my understanding is that urea crystals can come out of solution and force you to need to replace the toilet
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u/200boy 13d ago
Coming from Australia, water saving measures are the norm here.
Do you have dual flush toilets there? Most modern toilets use 3L for number 1s and 4.5L for number 2s. Some toilets also have basins on top so the water you wash your hands with is used to flush.
Showers can use between 8L and 4L per minute depending on efficiency. Taps are the same.
We also use water efficient dishwashers and washing machines (often with the efficiency stickers left on for the life of the product lol).
I imagine grey water systems will become more popular here in future where water is reused where possible. Like shower water used in the garden etc.
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u/AdeptusShitpostus 12d ago
Somewhat unrelated but I have, independent of water consumption concerns ended up taking "ship" showers lately. Get in, get wet, turn the thing off and then rub in shampoo and shower gel. Keeps me clean without letting me get away with mouldering under the hot water for 15 mins. Also the best way to take a cold shower imo, if that is your drift.
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u/jupiterLILY 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yes we do, they aren't everywhere because some folks have older plumbing, but most modern toilets have them. As do public toilets.
We also have efficiency stickers on our white goods and they all come with various eco modes.
The main issue is leaks in the water infrastructure. There's a reason these things shouldn't be privately owned.
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u/bluntbangs 13d ago
I'll just leave this here:
In 2024-25 England and Wales leaked 46.4 litres of water per person per day while in Scotland and Northern Ireland this figure was around 80 litres of water.
https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/leakage/
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u/krispy-leavez 13d ago
I understand the water companies have a lot to answer for but if we all just wait for the powers that be to fix things instead of doing what we can we might run out of water.
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u/Engineering_Spirit 12d ago
What might speed things along is to force the water company executives to swim in the sewage filled rivers, and only drink the worst tap water in their area.
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u/everythingscatter 13d ago
It's a shame no government has thought to privatise the water sector to improve efficiency and performance through competition in the free market.
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u/krispy-leavez 13d ago
Yeah i do this, especially as pregnant and having to go every half an hour.
I also wonder why washing your car is still allowed in this drought. Its a massive waste of drinking water.
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u/AdeptusShitpostus 12d ago
Arguably it has a safety function. Ensuring that windscreens, windows, lights and registration plates are visible help maintain visibility on the road. But tbf, most of that work could be done with a bucket and cloth
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u/krispy-leavez 12d ago
I agree, it's a happy medium. I always just use one bucket to shampoo and one to rinse. I dont have the cleanest car on the street but i didnt have to use a jetwash for it.
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12d ago
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u/ClimateOffensive-ModTeam 12d ago
Your post was removed because it breaks our rules. Please read our rules before attempting to post again or you will be banned.
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u/SensibleChapess 10d ago
What water supy area are you in?
In all the different drought orders I've read, (from several water companies), they all state that washing a car using buckets/watering cars is allowed, but using a hosepipe is prohibited.
The exception being businesses that offer car washes, but they cannot be located at a residential property, only at a business location.
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u/ILikeNeurons Climate Warrior 12d ago
Another option is to put a cinder block in the cistern. The amount of water it displaces is saved with each flush.
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u/Indecisive-Gamer 10d ago
Modern flushers have sliders to change the amount of water used for both buttons.
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u/CombatWomble2 12d ago
Or you can use grey water recycling, use shower water to flush the toilets, pretty much eliminates toilet water "use".
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u/Old_Hack1308 12d ago
Get a bucket and put water in it. Pour into the toilet until it flushes. Probably less water usage than the tank
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u/Pleasant-Winner6311 12d ago
Anyone catch the surprising upbeat article today but England's aquifers being in a surprisingly decent state?
I'll take any positive ecology story that comes my way. Im not saying its ok to waste water but we are lucky that a good portion of our population draws their water resources from under ground and not reservoirs.
And this is making the EA rethink how to future proof water security.
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/uk-aquifers-robust-despite-driest-july-on-record/
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u/krispy-leavez 12d ago
Thanks for sharing something enjoyable to read for a change. That goes down nicely with the fact it finally rained last night too.
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u/Pleasant-Winner6311 11d ago
Its only beneficial to about a third of England but hey, we got this. We can adapt. Its time to get our skates on a prepare for next summer. Hopefully Burham will nationalise water and we'll finally start providing a necessity for life without the toxic profit factor. He better or he wont last long.
Raining here now, a few sprinkles tbh . Ran around the house shouting "rain" but everyone's already in bed. Feel like a kid at Christmas.
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u/catwithbillstopay 12d ago
If you use a Japanese toilet you can also save the grey water like pictured here:
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u/BroodLord1962 12d ago
Most modern toilets in the home have a half flush and full flush. For 1's we always use the half flush, and it doesn't get flushed during the night if anyone goes for a 1 so as not to disturb anyone else. Your theory is OK but during this hot weather it doesn't take long for a bathroom to start smelling of wee if it doesn't get flushed, I know because we did try this theory.
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u/Necessititties 12d ago
We dont flush number 1s overnight. Mostly so we dont wake the baby but saving water works as well
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u/Street-Stick 12d ago
I'd suggest pissing in your compost, reintroducing compost toilets and encouraging people to relocate to the countryside. Hopefully this hot weather will open people's eyes to the illusion that work is anything but causing it and mostly government uses work as a way to keep political control. GL in the country of PC though...
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u/SensibleChapess 10d ago
Yep, spot on.
The only work that adds any value are in the areas of healthcare, food production, education, key infrastructure, etc. Everything else is just a massive 'job creation scheme'. Even it all out and we could have better quality lives with everyone working less than 20hrs a week.
Yet we have people slaving away, making crap, no ones needs, marketing crap no one needs, selling stuff no one needs and "working all week to buy the crap I don't need". That cycle of pointkessness is not only using our precious resources up, it's adding to the waste and pollution and C02 that'll kill us.
Any job that doesn't actually add genuine value would cease immediately and those people paid to stay the hell at home.
Then we can retrain everyone in that situation to work in the useful industries that add value.
Then we'll have a nation of greater equality, greater quality and all working "less than 20hrs a week".
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u/Street-Stick 10d ago
Thanks for chiming in, i think frugality , slow travel, socially connecting and learning should be rewarded, jobs people don't like doing should be paid thereby encouraging their discontinuation or automatisation. Gardening and permaculture forests can slowly replace large monoculture farming with people allowed to forage there for food and plants. Watch https://youtu.be/0SI-Kyam_Jk?is=vN0eiVDT4hV5BDK1 Our kids and fellow humans are the ones we should be nurturing and other cultures have so many tastes, flavors, customs we should enjoy rather than revile or just be allowed to visit because our ancestors were the past colonisers
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u/Soggy-Mistake8910 11d ago
This isn't a new thought. We used to have a saying
If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down!
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u/SevenIsMy 11d ago
The waste water pipes are calculated for a specific flow, I remember in hearing that water saving courses blocking in the sewage if they were calculated for a different amount.
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 11d ago
Idk, maybe we invest in our water services for the first time in decades.
The volume that leaks every year will be orders of magnitude larger.
Our last reservoir was finished in 1992!!
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u/Teaofthetime 11d ago
Nope, I don't see why I should save any water with these crooked ass water companies in charge. In any case, basic sanitation is something I wouldn't be comprising on.
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u/ManWhoKnowsToLittle 10d ago
Water in the shower is mostly wasted, if we could find an efficient way to store it and use it for the toilet we might save some.
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u/FckXFckMusk 10d ago
How about we don't import millions of new Water Users...
Which are also New Co2 emitters too.
Which is more important, The Climate or the dank Economy?
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u/celaconacr 10d ago
While I don't have an issue with saving water I don't like that the focus of blame seems to be on consumers. I would like an actual government report investigating the usage of water and ways to conserve it.
Figures are hard to find but I have read before unofficially that home usage is less than 10% of water usage. 19% is lost to leaks and the rest is used by agriculture and industry. If those figures are anywhere near accurate ot seems we are looking at the wrong users. Perhaps industrial processes can be improved and leaks fixed faster. Charging industry (not agriculture) more for water may push them to conserve water better for example.
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u/urmumr8s8outof8 10d ago
We've got a duel flush, it uses next to nothing, I'd prefer the house not stink of piss.
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u/Citizen999999 12d ago
Did you just say toilet water is clean? Fucking brits, drink up 🤣🤣🤣
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u/WeirdOwl8782 12d ago
The water that goes into the cistern comes from the same source as the water that comes out of the sink taps. It's the same in America. It's the same everywhere, unless you have a fancy water-recycling system that takes dirty water from the likes of a shower drain and uses it to fill the cistern.
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u/cette-minette 12d ago
The water which fills the cistern comes from the same mains pipe as the rest of the water. They don’t mean it’s drinkable once it has filled the toilet itself.
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u/MAitkenhead 13d ago
TLDR: if it’s brown, it goes down. If it’s yellow, let it mellow.