Do you know how much water you use on average per day? Or per year? We’ve laid out the facts for you, because the better you map your water consumption, the more consciously you can pay attention to it—and save many liters of water!
The average water consumption per person per day in the Netherlands:
(These figures are averages and depend on the type of appliances in the house)
- Sink: 3 liters (shaving, brushing teeth and washing hands)
- Shower: 45 to 70 liters (per shower of 3-5 minutes)
- Toilet: 30 liters
- Washing machine: 17 liters (for a 1/3 full load)
- Kitchen: 4 liters (preparing breakfast and dinner for 4 people)
- Dishwasher: 8 liters
- Household: 4 liters (small cleaning with half a bucket of water, a full bucket is about 10 liters)
- Garden: 4 liters
Total: 115 to 140 liters per person per day, 41,975 to 51,100 liters PER YEAR!
How much water do you use?
Of course, your current lifestyle habits play a big role, and you won’t always do laundry or water the garden every day. Have you ever thought about how much water you personally use on average per day or per week? Try tracking this for yourself to get a good insight into the amount of water that regularly flows unnoticed through your pipes.
How do you reduce your water consumption at home?
Small changes in your home and habits can make a big difference! Not only for the environment in this case, but certainly for your wallet as well. For example, consider a water-saving showerhead or a toilet with a flush stop. That already makes a huge difference!
- Toilet: 10 liters per flush
- Toilet with flush interruption: 2 to 6 liters per flush
- Shower: 10 to 13 liters per minute
- Shower with water-saving head: 4.5 to 7 liters per minute
- Regular tap (kitchen or bathroom): 12 to 16 liters per minute
- Water-saving tap (kitchen or bathroom): 4 to 8 liters per minute
Your water consumption doesn’t just come from the tap
And that’s not even everything: Only 2% of the water you use comes from your own tap. The rest of your consumption is hidden in producing the food you eat and the clothes and items you buy. To find out how much you really 'use,' the water footprint was developed. You can calculate your own water footprint via the online calculator from Water Footprint Network.
How do you reduce your own water footprint?
To seriously save water, you need to do a bit more than just shower shorter. Below are some tips to reduce your water consumption:
- Eat less meat (producing one kilo of beef requires 15,500 liters of water!)
- Tackle your food waste and throw away less food
- Eat local and seasonal
- Eat less processed food
- Drink tap water more often
- Buy sustainable clothing and wash less (producing one cotton T-shirt uses 2700 liters of water!)
- Recycle your old textiles
- Buy a rain barrel and start collecting rainwater for the garden
- Prevent drinking water pollution: Do not rinse fats, paint, medicines, or other contaminants down the drain.
Do you now have a better idea of how much water you use on average? Let us know in the comments which tip you will apply to reduce your water consumption!
With sustainable regards,
Ellen from Pantino.nl
