Do your part to cut
water waste
From reporting leaks to cutting showers,
here are some tips for conserving water
Did you know that the average
person without a washing
machine at home still
uses more than 45 gallons of water
a day? In fact that’s a conservative
estimate!
At LeFrak City, which more than
14,000 people call home, household
water usage totals nearly 650,000
gallons every day, adding up to nearly
24 million gallons a year.
More than a third of an average
household’s water usage comes simply
from fl ushing your toilet. Reports
show that 37% of water consumed in
a given day comes from toilets, while
24% comes from showers and baths,
22% from sinks and 17% from leaks.
With so many of us concerned
about our environment, taking a few
easy steps toward conserving water
at home will help protect our world
for years to come.
Here are some tips that you can
follow to conserve water:
• Report a leak! A leaky faucet
or toilet may not seem like a big
deal, but leaks account for an
estimated 17% of household water
usage. Th at’s a lot of wasted water,
so please contact Management
immediately if you spot a leak in
your apartment.
• Shower, don’t bathe! It takes
about 70 gallons of water to fi ll
the standard bathtub. Using a
standard showerhead, a fiveminute
shower uses just 15-20
gallons of water. If you do want
to treat yourself to a bath, please
close the drain before turning on
the water, and only fill your tub
halfway.
• Shorten your shower! Every
minute you shorten your shower
saves up to 120 gallons of water
per month. If every LeFrak City
resident were to cut their showers
by one minute each, more
than 1,000,000 gallons of water
would be conserved each month.
It makes a huge difference!
• Turn off the tap! Most people
leave the bathroom sink faucet
running while they wash their
face, brush their teeth or shave.
Turning off the tap, however, can
save 70 gallons of water or more
per month. One simple way to
save water is to brush your teeth
while waiting for the water to get
hot, then to wash or shave once
the basin is fi lled.
• Don’t flush if you don’t have
to! Rather than throwing tissues
or other light waste in the toilet,
throw it in the trashcan.
• Get a handle on it! If your toilet
handle sticks frequently, your
toilet could be running and
wasting water long after you’ve
flushed. Have the sticks replaced
or adjusted to slow the flow back
to normal.
• Fill the sink! If you wash your
dishes by hand, please fill the
sink rather than letting the faucet
run. Doing this will save between
8 and 15 gallons of water daily.
• Store your water. Keep a pitcher
of drinking water in the refrigerator
24 JULy 2018 | WWW.QNS.CoM | LEfRaK CIty COURIER
instead of turning on the tap
and letting it run until the water
gets cold.
• Reuse your water! There’s no
reason to pour unused clean water
down the drain. Use it instead
to clean your home or water a
houseplant.
Around the grounds
» You can also help LeFrak City
conserve water by keeping a
careful eye out for waste around
the grounds.
» If you believe a washing machine
is inefficient, or if you think
it is leaking, please inform
Management right away (718-
271-5000).
» When lawns are being watered
during the summer, make a
mental note of the time of day
you see the sprinklers on. Lawns
are best watered while the sun
is down to reduce evaporation.
Report to Management any
instance in which you see the
sprinklers running during the
middle of the day.
» also, let Management know if you
see someone using water to clean
walkways instead of sweeping
them, or if you spot broken
sprinklers or leaky or broken
pipes.
Where it goes: Average household water usage
Toilets Showers Sinks Leaks
and baths
37 % 24 % 22 % 17 %