Let’s face it, we’ve all done it before: you step under nice, hot running water, close your eyes and relax, and before you know it you’ve been in the shower for 20 minutes! Unfortunately our world has become so fast paced that many of us are not taking enough time to practice stress relief techniques on a regular basis, and sometimes we end up taking them at inappropriate times, and using inappropriate amounts of water. Fresh water is arguably the most precious resource we have on the planet, and also one of the most rapidly declining..perhaps also one of the most mismanaged. It’s easy to take fresh water for granted when it flows from our taps in an abundant, seemingly endless stream. It’s even heated for our convenience, should we desire it! Well, this is a luxury that is most definitely not available to everyone, in fact a huge percentage of the global population do not have access to sanitized fresh water in their homes( let alone heated!). Even some first world countries prone to drought must regulate the amount of water each household uses in the dry season. So how can we be more mindful of our fresh water consumption? Here are some tips!

1. Buy a low flow showerhead. These showerheads are readily available at commercial hardware stores, are easy to install and significantly reduce the flow of water from your shower.

2. Time yourself in the shower. Are your showers lasting longer than 10 minutes? Challenge yourself by setting a goal of taking 5 minute showers( this is ample time to wash your hair and body!).

3. Don’t let the water run idly! Once your hair is wet turn off the shower while you lather your hair with shampoo, then turn the shower on and rinse. Next step: conditioner. Turn the water off for the 1 to 3 minutes that you let your conditioner sit on your hair, then turn it on and rinse. Voila! You’ve just saved gallons of water.

4. When washing your face, hands or brushing your teeth don’t leave the faucet running! This is a very common and very wasteful habit, and it’s honestly not hard to change. Just start reminding yourself that you don’t need running water for the scrubbing/brushing portion of the ritual, just the rinsing!

5. It’s sumer time, the temperatures are blazing..do you really need a hot shower? No! Turn down the water temperature and save more energy. It also feels wonderful to have a lukewarm/ cool shower in the summer, rather than a hot shower.

So there you have it, some simple solutions for minimizing your household water consumption! If every household in North America practiced these water saving techniques it would add up to millions of gallons of water saved annually. And remember: take time for yourself. Walk in nature, cook a leisurely meal and enjoy it with family and friends, and meditate daily..just NOT in the shower!
* Be the change you wish to see in the World*
– Mahatma Ghandi

Sometimes it is easy to become discouraged when we see so much bad news about the environement. We see world leaders making poor decisions in regards to solutions for sustainable energy, we see corporations producing products with no regard whatsoever to their impact on communities and the landfills in which they will ultimately end up, and we see communities in developing nations that are overrun with waste, much of it shipped there from wealthy, developed nations. It feels like it’s a never ending problem and no one’s bothering to think of a solution for all the garbage, right?

Wrong! All over the world brilliant methods for minimizing the impact of waste on our precious planet are being developed! Here are just afew examples:

1. Zero Waste.

The philosophy of Zero Waste is to produce goods that have no hazardous, unusable byproducts. Zero Waste is precycling on a global scale. Although this system is still not practiced on a global scale, some areas are adopting the Zero Waste philosophy. Scotland announced plans to work towards Zero Waste in 2008, with the target to achieve the goal set for 2025.

2. Anaerobic Digestion.

Anaerobic digestion is the degradation of waste by microorganisms in an environement with no oxygen. Organic solid waste and waste water of almost any kind can be broken down using this process, and the byproduct is fertilizer and biogas which can be converted into energy. Anaerobic digestion is therefore a renewable source of energy.

3. Waste to Energy.

Waste to energy uses a method called plasma arc gasification. Plasma torches are used to incinerate liquid or solid waste, and these torches operate at the same temperatures as the sun’s surface! The waste is converted into a synthetic gas( syngas), which is then converted into energy, and there is no remaining byproduct.

4. Waste to Fuel.

Biofuel is the most common form of waste to fuel. It encompasses a range of different fuels derived from organic matter which can be used to fuel vehicles of all kinds. Biogas, a product of Anaerobic digestion, and syngas, a product of Waste to energy, are types of biofuel.

So there are just a handful of innovative solutions in waste management. When creative minds with long term vision come together, there is no ceiling on what can be accomplished in this field. Anyone can have an idea that, if pursued, can have significant positive impact on the future of our planet and how we manage our resources. The only limitation to innovation in waste management is lack of imagination!

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged when we think about all the ecological challenges we face on a global scale. Sometimes we might even think: “Nothing I do will ever make a positive impact on the environment”. This is simply not the case. Doing your best to reduce, re-use and recycle your household waste does help your community, and when many households recycle, reduce and re-use it has a positive impact provincially, nationally, and eventually globally! Overcrowded landfills are a worldwide problem. Landfills are so full of “garbage”, much of it which could have been recycled, that they are anaerobic, meaning there is no oxygen within the compact waste material, and as such it will never biodegrade. When you pay attention to what you consume(pre-cycle), and you give what waste you do produce a second life( re-cycle), you help cut down on the amount of material that goes to landfill. We know that on an industrial scale recycling plants face logistical challenges; sometimes the recyclable material must be transported long distances to be processed, sometimes post-consumer recycled plastics get processed improperly and make their way into the oceans and other sensitive ecosystems. However, although the system is not perfect, it makes alot more sense to recycle than to just let it all pile up in a landfill. And in my humble opinion, alot of the plastic in our oceans, rivers and other ecosystems is not from recycling gone awry, it’s from people and corporations with no regard for how to properly dispose of or re-use their waste. There are many people and groups the world over doing exciting, positive things in the field of waste management. More and more people are creating innovative ways to reduce, re-use and recycle. So keep the faith, and do your part. Think globally, act locally!