Turn it off.....big deal if it gets a bit cold......

Not all of us can go crazy when it comes to water conservation processes, but there are little things that we can all do to save some of our most precious material.

In our practice we were able to lower our water impact by installing low flow fixtures throughout the office. Now that wasn't the our biggest impact process. Our biggest water conservation process was the installation of a waterless vacuum (or suction) system. Older dental suction was created by running water that would create the vacuum pressure to create "Mr. Thirsty's" thirst. This one change has saved hundreds of gallons of water per day.

I've touched on ways our practice has saved water, there are some small ways to conserve water everyday with virtually no effort. There is a program sponsored by the Eco Dentistry Association called Save 90 a day, where you can save water by turning off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth. This could also be followed when doing dishes. I would be as bold as to recommend that this technique be applied to showering. Who says you can't turn off the shower while you are lathering up? Yeah, you may get a little cold, but that small sacrifice could save up to 10 gallons of water per shower. Now multiply that by the number of people in the household. If saving the water supply is not reason enough, just consider the money that could be saved.

There are many other conservation techniques that can be employed in the home like rain barrels and alternative forms of irrigation, to gray water systems, but that could be another very long subject that I will leave to interested individuals to research, as I have in my green journey. Now only if I could afford to do all I wanted, but a little goes a long way.

I live in Florida, and water conservation is a big deal that's too often overlooked. It's crazy that 70% of the planet is water, but only 1% of that is potable for human use. We need to save our water. We can survive 5 weeks without food, but we can only make it a couple days without water.

Charles R. Cuprill, DMD
www.orlandoteeth.com