All Those Drops
in the Bucket Add Up
Some tips for cutting water waste
Did you know that the average
LEFRAK CITY COURIER | WWW.QNS.COM | APRIL 2018 21
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 fi ve-minute
shower uses just 25 gallons of water.
If you do want to treat yourself
to a bath, please close the drain
before turning on the water, and
only fi ll your tub halfway.
• Shorten your shower! Every minute
you shorten your shower saves
up to 75 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 diff erence!
• 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 fl ush 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 fl ow back
to normal.
• Fill the sink! If you wash your
dishes by hand, please fi ll 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
instead of turning on the tap and
letting it run until the water gets
cold.
• Reuse your water! Th ere’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.
» 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 %