Confessions Of A Serial Water Hog

I was simply minding my own teeth one day, as I often do, when confronted by my daughter. She was appalled that I was leaving the water running in the sink while brushing and wasting a ton of water. Truth be told, I’d been doing this for so long that I barely gave it a second thought. Hailing from the beautiful Pacific Northwest where water seems to be as plentiful as it is plentiful, I’ve always felt that my teeth could not be properly cleaned without the comforting accompaniment of water swirling merrily down the drain.

So, thanks to my daughter, I actually gave it a second thought. Just how wasteful was I being? I estimated that it takes about 3 minutes to brush my teeth. This included the 2 minutes cleaning time managed by my nifty ultrasonic toothbrush with an additional minute for sundry toothpasting, rinsing, spitting, flossing and follow-up sink cleaning action. Please note: brushing times may vary due to the size and quantity of your teeth.

I figured that during my 3-minute brushing session, I’ve wasted around 12 gallons of water. And thanks to the blood oath sworn to my lovely dental hygienist, I’m good for a minimum of two brushings a day. So that’s a minimum of 24 gallons a day going to waste. If I average days in a month at 30.5, we’re talking 732 gallons a month. Yikes! This led me to a whopping (and embarrassing) 8,784 gallons of water a year that’s sacrificed all in the name of periodontal self-indulgence.

I am truly a serial water hog. The cost of my aqua avarice is incalculable.

Wait a minute. Maybe it is calculable. The average cost of tap water is approximately $0.003/gallon. So if a single person uses 8,764 gallons of water a year to brush their teeth, this adds up to $26.29/year. If you multiply this by the number of people in your household, in my case three, that comes out to $78.87 a year just for teeth brushing.

And I’m just getting started… Did I mention that I also leave the water on when I’m shaving?

I am truly a serial water hog.

Let’s go to the tote board:

• Average shaving time = 3 minutes 25 seconds

• Amount of water wasted per day = 13 gallons

• Average amount of water wasted per month = 396.5 gallons

• Average amount of water wasted per year = 4,758 gallons

• Cost of water wasted per year, includes cost of gas or electricity to heat the water – (I won’t shave cold) an additional $0.008.00 per gallon = $52.34

Grand total of this water hog’s heinous tooth brushing and shaving consumption:

• Total water wasted per year = 13,522 gallons

• Total cost of gallons wasted per year = $131.21

Lesson learned, I hereby solemnly pledge to keep my bathroom tap firmly in the off position until such time that its precious h20 is legitimately needed for a brief rinse of a toothbrush or razor or to fill a water cup. I know my simple effort is not going to solve California’s water crisis, but I’m pretty sure there are at least 2,000 fellow tooth brushing and or shaving water hogs in the Palisades alone (and I know you’re out there) who would account for as much as 27 million gallons of wasted water a year!

Please join with me in stopping our wicked water wasting ways, one bathroom sink at a time!

Jon Torp

co-creator of EnvironMedals.com, which rewards kids for doing a series of eco-friendly tasks