American homes consume about 100 gallons of water a day –that’s almost 70% more than homes of other industrialized countries. Residential water use makes up 47 percent of the water supplied by U.S. water utilities. We can each become more environmentally friendly, and our plumbing systems are a good place to start. There are lots of ways you can save money and the environment if you just take the time, including some well-known and not-so-well-known ways.

Low-flow: Inexpensive and relatively simple to install, low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, and toilets can reduce your home water consumption by as much as 50% (an average household can save about 7,800 gallons of water a year), making them the most effective home water conservation projects. But what you may not realize is that if you’re cutting your water consumption, that reduces the amount of water that you need to heat –cutting your electricity or natural gas (whichever your hot water heater uses) bill up to 50%.

Bottled or tap: A water filtration system attached to your faucet (or free-standing) can purify enough water to fill up more than 3,000 disposable plastic water bottles every year. Globally, 38 billion disposable plastic water bottles are thrown out every year. Cutting down on the use of these disposable bottles also reduces crude oil dependency –crude oil by-product is used in plastic water bottle manufacturing, approximately 17 million barrels of oil are used every year just to meet America's demands for these plastic water bottles. Buy a reusable bottle and fill it with water you filter yourself, you’ll save money and the environment.

Graywater (or greywater) systems:  A safe and easy way to collect and filter the water used by faucets, dishwashers, and washing machines, and reuse it for non-potable (non-drinking water) purposes --cutting back on your home's water consumption. The system recycles water, to water plants for example, reducing your use of fresh, potable water.  It also cuts down the amount of water going into your community's sewage system instead of the soil.

Leaky faucets: The steady drip of a leaky tap isn’t just annoying, it can really add up. Fixing your leaky faucets is a way to keep water and money from slipping down the drain. The average American household consumes about 90 gallons of water a day. About 12.6 gallons of that is due to faucet, toilet, and pipe leaks. Stopping this ongoing loss is as easy as calling your plumber to fix that chronic leak that you’ve been putting off. A dripping faucet can waste up to 74 gallons a day, a leaking toilet up to 200 gallons a day. Repair a leaky toilet and you can save 73,000 gallons a year.

Leaky pipes: What happens when your leaky pipes are so full of pinhole leaks or can’t be repaired and need to be replaced? A repipe, or pipe replacement, involves cutting open walls and removal of the affected pipes. Not only does this mean you’re throwing away drywall and old pipes, but you’re using new drywall and pipes, each with its own manufacturing toll on the environment.

CuraFlo’s® epoxy pipe lining is a “green”, or environmentally friendly alternative to repipe. It involves less mess and takes less time than pipe replacement. More often than not epoxy lining is more cost-effective too. Your pipes are epoxy lined through connections to your existing plumbing fixtures and valves, nearly or completely eliminating the need to cut open walls. Your pipes are cleaned out and epoxy is blown through. Your existing pipes are restored to good as new condition with at least another 50 years of service life.

Brian LeMaire is President of CuraFlo and has been in the plumbing industry since 1981. He is a qualified Journeyman plumber throughout all of Canada as well as a State registered plumbing contractor in Ohio. Brian has been involved in all aspects of being a plumbing and heating contractor including new construction of hospitals, schools, and industrial facilities. Prior to founding CuraFlo in 1996, Brian owned and operated a very successful service & repipe business in Vancouver, British Columbia. Together with Dr. Dave Dunn is Vice President of Research and Development for CuraFlo, he coauthors PipeProblems.com –a blog that answers people’s questions about pipe repair.