Saving Water for a Better World – Project Proposal – Jeremy Mendoza

Posted on November 2, 2011 by | 4 Comments

I believe that to make the world a better place, we have to start small and work our way up. One problem that I encounter everyday is the amount of water people use. Water is so prevalent in our world that it’s easy to ignore the amount of water we actually use each day. According to the EPA, the highest amount of our water usage is concentrated in what we use in the bathroom. A typical shower uses about 2.5 gallons per minute. From my personal experience, many people, including myself, usually take ten to twenty minute showers, which adds up to 25-50 gallons per shower. A toilet uses about two gallons per flush. A bathroom sink will use about two gallons per minute.

The purpose of my project is to explore different ways to save water in the household restroom. There are simple methods to saving water, such as shortening the amount of time one spends in the shower, or turning off the sink while brushing teeth. One method I have found very effective in conserving water is turning off the shower while shampooing and soaping (and I felt just as clean as if I took a twenty minute shower). Aside from exploring the simple ways to save water by simply using less, I want to research water-saving technologies and synthesize new technologies that could possibly work to save water. I will also create posters and materials to encourage easy ways of reducing water usage.

Sources: http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/indoor.html

This entry was posted in Jeremy Mendoza and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 responses to “Saving Water for a Better World – Project Proposal – Jeremy Mendoza”

  1. bretttietz | November 9, 2011 at 4:57 pm | Reply

    Hey Jeremy,
    Your project is a very necessary one!
    I think that the posters you mentioned are very important. If placed in the bathrooms by the hand dryer, people would read it up to 5 times a day. That would be a lot of advertising and in my mind very effective for getting the message across. I still think that my favorite idea would be a shower with a timer, like what you would see on a hot tub. Maybe the shower has a 5 minute knob and after the five minutes are up, your shower is done. This would at least make students time-conscious when cleaning themselves. Also another idea that I had outside of the bathroom is a water-reservoir system. I’m not sure what kind of water-reservoir projects the University has going on but rain water is something that could really add up to a lot over a short period of time. Anyway, I hope all is well with your project.

    Brett

  2. emmaelizabethan | November 12, 2011 at 7:57 pm | Reply

    I totally agree that water usage is an absolutely monstrous issue. Thats a pretty crazy figure for the water usage in the shower. I dont know if you have ever gone camping, but I can often recall using showers that only run for a few minutes and although this would be an inconvenience it really makes you move faster. I think something like that would get the idea in peoples heads

  3. pclarkallen | November 15, 2011 at 2:21 pm | Reply

    Jeremy,
    Great project idea. Who are you planning on targeting with your posters? Students, or the off-campus community? You’ll probably want to tailor your message to the audience you’re trying to reach. If students, maybe you could get your posters into some of the dorms around campus. It would be interesting to track water usage in bathrooms with and without posters.

  4. eliotmarkman | December 12, 2011 at 4:56 pm | Reply

    Nice presentation Jeremy. Are there other ways to save water on a campus level?

Leave a comment