Water is a valuable and essential resource that many take for granted. Not everyone has a source of water to go to whenever it is needed. We also should learn not to waste this precious resource. In honor of Canyon Echoes’ Green Week, here are some ideas to help you conserve and save water.

When you wake up in the morning and brush your teeth, don’t leave the sink running. That would be running clean water for over two minutes which wastes gallons, especially if you have a fast flowing faucet.

At school, check for leaky sinks or faucets. If found, report these immediately. Even though a drop of water may not seem like a lot, overtime, a lot of water could be wasted.

You can also save water by washing fruits or vegetables for dinner all at the same time in a big bowl. Instead of allowing the force of water clean your food, use a brush or washcloth to scrub them down. This allows for less water needed and also cleaner food. When dealing with frozen foods, try not to put them in a large container of water to defrost. Think ahead and leave them outside or in the refrigerator the night before.

After dinner, when washing the dishes, it is actually more water efficient to put your dishes in a dishwasher. Most standard dishwashers only use about six gallons of water, while hand-washing takes about 20. However, you should only machine wash when you have a full load.

Showering is a water costly activity that uses seven to 10 gallons a minute. Most people have been encouraged to take shorter showers, but a new suggestion is to collect all the water wasted when waiting for the water to turn warm in a bucket. Instead of letting all of that go down the drain, it can be used to water plants or even wash cars.

Climate Progress estimates that the United States wastes seven billion gallons of drinking water a day. However if every one of us tried to conserve water, that amount would decrease dramatically.