EnviroHumanImpact

It can be a traditional watering can, an old pitcher or jug, but whatever it is, you should use it on your plants.

What?  Who is this guy telling me to water my plants with a watering can?  I don’t even have plants!

Well if you don’t have plants, you should get them in order to clean up the air in your home, as they can absorb unwanted chemicals from your air, leaving it healthier for you and your family.

Now, why use a watering can?  Obviously, your plants have to be watered.  You have them (or you’re going to get them, right?  For you and your family’s health!) and they require water.   Okay, glad we cleared that up.  So I was stating the obvious, but work with me here.

This may be something you already do without thinking much about it, but in order to further green your activity of watering plants, over the course of a day, pour excess water you did not drink into your watering can.  Sometimes I leave a glass sit overnight and the next morning, I don’t care to drink water that sat overnight and in any case, I would like a new glass.

But my plants could surely use that water (filtered, no doubt with some backwash!).  Also, hold your watering can under the faucet while you run the water through the faucet to get hot water.  Have ice leftover after you drink your beverage?  Put the ice into the watering can rather than down the drain.  Then use that water that otherwise would go unused on your plants.

Don’t leave water sitting in the can for more than a day, and use it as needed on your houseplants, garden, or landscaping and you’ll be greening your home a little bit more.   Just make sure to keep it near the kitchen sink (or maybe the bathroom) in order to catch that extra water for other use.

And how does this green my activity? Simply put, getting water to your home and then back away again is energy- and chemical-intensive.  From pumping it to a treatment facility to using chemicals and processes for cleaning it (and leaving some, like chlorine in the water) to pumping it to your home and up into your building (if you live in a high-rise, you may have seen water pressure drop if you had a power outage) and back to pumping the water away and treating it again before releasing it back into nature.  Just remember that when the water is running, pollution is also, “running.” The less water you run for your functions, the less pollution.

What do I buy? If you’re going out to buy a water can, I recommend one that has an optional end with holes for giving plants a shower, in case you’re watering a surface of small plants (like wheatgrass) or for watering seeds that you’re starting and you can remove it for free pour.  Remember, in almost all homes, there’s already something that will fulfill your watering can needs, a pitcher or an old juice or milk jug would work, for example, so you need not go out and buy something new — just clean whatever you use out with a little dish soap.

Plastic or metal? Hard to say.  Both are technically recyclable, both have to be removed in some way from the ground (oil for plastic, ore for metal).  Metals tend to rust (unless you get copper or stainless steel, which in most instances will not) but as a general rule, if you have an opportunity to buy something other than plastic with very similar results, go for the non-plastic product - there’s no telling what our longterm exposure to plastic products in so many of our applications will do to humans, and as time goes on, we’re seeing that its coming into contact with our food and water may be carcinogenic (saran wrap and plastic water bottles, as two examples).

Action item: Go (right now) to your kitchen (or at least visualize what you would choose) and pick out an item that will work for your watering can.  You might have one already, maybe in the basement??  If not, choose which jug in your fridge might make a good candidate, or consider buying new.  And if you do not yet have plants, go pick some nice ones out to spruce up your abode, as well as the air you breathe!  Might I recommend philodendrons for you?  Might I?

EHI is here, everyday, bringing you new tips, product reviews, and environmental news, all to help our readers become more aware and to make both small and large changes in their lives toward a more sustainable future.  We hope you will join us again.  You can get daily feeds through our RSS Feed or through Email Updates (found below!).

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