Water saving toilet cistern and hand basin

Check out this innovative combined hand basin and toilet cistern. The hand basin sits above the cistern and drains grey water from hand washing into the toilet cistern. The makers claim that it can help you save up to 40,000 litres of water per year. Check out the Royal Flush website for details.

School kids aim high for water saving target

Year 7 Berwick (Victoria) school kids from Kambrya College have begun a water saving initiative to reduce their average daily collective water use from 3800 down to 1000 litres.  Some of the water saving initiatives include reducing shower times and recycling gray water to the garden with buckets placed in the shower.  See the Star News for the full article.

Chemical Free Electrolyzed Water Systems

eWater Systems sell a range of chemical free electrolyzed water systems which can be used for cleaning and sanitizing. The ROX electrolyzed water technology can be used in food preparation to clean and sanitize food, preparation surfaces, cleaning hands and cooking equipment.

The ROX water systems produce both alkaline and acidic solutions to assist in cleaning and sanitizing, but as both the acidic and alkaline solutions are diluted, their disposal in waste water systems presents no environmental problems.

Rainwater calculator

Tankmasta has a great little rainwater calculator to help you calculate how much water could be collected from your roof into a rainwater tank annually. I was out in an industrialized area near Melbourne recently and I was amazed at the about of roof area some factories had with no sight of a rainwater tank.

Some of these factory roofs would literally cover hectares. Tankmasta’s raineater calculator suggests that a 1 hectare (1o,000 sq meters) roof in Melbourne would collect 5,877,000 litres of water annually. That’s not to be sneezed at!

You can find the rain water calculator at the bottom of Tankmaster’s home page.

Environmental Education and Training in Sustainability.

Good to see that there’s organisations out there dedicated to educating young and old about the importance of sustainability.  The Gould Group conduct environmental education and sustainability programs and projects for schools, businesses and the community.  Check out The Gould Group website for details.

Do water filters help save water?

I have a theory that water filters help save water.  Maybe it’s psychological on my part but when we had (yes had - it broke) a water filter, I reckon we were more careful with the water we poured out of it; we treated the water like it was more precious.  Now that the water filter has gone (soon to be replaced) I feel as though we’re a little more careless with the water we use from the tap for drinking purposes.  Water from the tap comes out faster and dirtier and perhaps that’s why we treat it with less respect than the water from a water filter.  Just a theory though!

Water saving shower head

If you’ve till got one of those massive shower heads that waists truck loads of water, then it’s time for an upgrade. You can pick up a water saving shower head these days for as little as $20 from Bunnings and they’re a sinch to install. Most of the time you can just unscrew the old water waisting shower head and screw on the fab new water saving shower head. So what’s stopping you?

Old style inefficient showerheads can use as much as 20 to 30 litres of water every minute while a AAA rated water saving one will only use around 9 litres of water per minute. You won’t just be saving water either, you’ll save energy as you’ll be heating less hot water.

Go on, go buy a water saving shower head now!

Design a water saving device and win a Wii

Two things near and dear to my heart, saving water and Nintendo Wii!  Core77 have issued a water saving design competition where the winner can win a Nintendo Wii.  All you have to do is design a novel water saving device for the bathroom and submit it to the Core77 Water-saving designs for the bathroom competition.

Hills Hoist makers make Water Tanks

The ABC reports that Hill Industries, the people that make Hills Hoist, has just turned over $1b in revenue. No doubt due to the good old Australian company’s water tank division called Team Poly.  Team Poly manufacture a huge range of polyethylene water tanks in all shapes and sizes.  Included in their water tank range are:

• Corrugated Water Tanks
• Drink Water Tanks
• Modular Water Tanks
• Slimlie Water Tanks
• Septic Tanks

You can check out the range at the Team Poly website.

Falling water tables

Treehugger has an interesting report on the issue of world wide water table levels.  The article states that many countries are over pumping their aquifers and that the current level of water harvesting from these aquifers is unsustainable.  When the aquifers run dry, irrigation of farmland will be reduced, thus reducing food supplies.  Check out the water table treehugger article.