What if every drop of water your customers use came out of bottles?

According to the U.S. EPA, Americans use an average of 82 gallons of water per day at home. But according to research conducted by Opinium on behalf of American Water, the number is more like 2,000 gallons per day when including both direct and indirect consumption. Indirect use is of course an individual’s share of the water required to produce all the products they use and consume.

But let’s get back to that 82-gallon figure. Suppose your customers had to draw all their water from gallon jugs. Or the ubiquitous 16-ounce plastic bottles. At the 82-gallon figure, that would amount to 656 16-ounce plastic bottles per day, or 4,592 per week per person. For a family of four, that number balloons to 18,368. No one would ever be able to park in their garage again if they were recycling all those bottles.

It’s slightly easier to imagine the space consumed by the 2,296 gallon jugs a family of four would use per week on average. Again, no one’s parking in the garage. 

We often talk about or hear about the out-of-sight, out-of-mind nature of water and wastewater infrastructure. People don’t ever think about it until there’s a problem. Turn on the faucet, and there’s the water. Flush the toilet and everything’s gone, just like magic. 

But the out-of-sight, out-of-mind nature of our water and wastewater infrastructure often carries over to our use and appreciation of the resource. While many in the parched West are being forced to confront their water use head-on, many aren’t, especially in other areas of the country. Most people, as has been well chronicled, don’t really have any idea how much water they use, or how much certain tasks use. 

So imagine if they had to grab a gallon jug everytime they needed some water instead of turning on the faucet. Aside from the obvious difficulties of transporting all your water home in gallon jugs, think of all those plastic containers piling up. Think of having a clear visual representation of every drop of water you use on a daily basis. As I mentioned, most garages would be packed full of plastic bottles, and that mountain of recyclables might get people to start being a little more careful with their water use. 

I’m not at all suggesting we go this route, but it’s an exercise that could bring perspective to people who innocently turn on their faucet whenever they need a drink or want to wash a few dishes and never give a thought to how much water is actually going down the drain.

I think the average person would be astonished to actually see all the water they use in a given day. And once they were aware, they might start to think about it. 

Enjoy this month’s issue.