Don’t waste another drop
Flush the toilet less, take showers instead of bathing,
and more useful tips for conserving water
Did you know that in America
we waste approximately 1 trillion
gallons of water per year?
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
240 million gallons a year.
More than a third of an average
household’s water usage comes simply
from flushing 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 36 gallons of water to fill
the standard bathtub. Using a
standard showerhead, a fiveminute
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 fill 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
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 filled.
• 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 trash can.
• Get a handle on it! If your toilet
handle sticks frequently, your
toilet could be running and
wasting water long aft er you’ve
fl ushed. 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.
26 OCTOBER 2018 | WWW.QNS.COM | LEFRAK CITY COURIER
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 %