Week #25 Collect Rainwater

Rainwater harvesting is a great strategy for reducing domestic water use and protecting our homes and the land surrounding it. Harvesting rainwater can lead us to dozens of other practices that bring us into greater sustainability.

The ecological benefits of recycling rainwater are potentially huge: toilet flushing, for example, accounts for up to 35% of the average household’s water usage. Add in the amount of water we use for washing clothes or watering the garden and the possible savings begin to grow.

For businesses, these figures are much higher, particularly for industries such as hotels that have a large number of regular guests in one place. Using rainwater harvesting for jobs such as flushing the toilet eliminates the need to use fresh drinking water from the mains and offers a significant reduction in the total water usage.

The main ecological benefit offered by the use of rainwater collection systems is the reduction in this use of mains water which means that less water will need to be artificially drawn from the environment, a supply that is best used for drinking, bathing and cooking.

One of the other ecological benefits of rainwater harvesting systems is that they can lessen the load placed upon drainage systems, reducing the effects of flooding by channeling the run-off water into tanks for recycling. (Source)

If you are living in a small apartment, you can collect rainwater on your balcony and use it for watering your plants. Actually, the majority of plants will thank you for using rainwater.