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Eco-Friendly Bathroom

It’s easy to make your bathroom greener. For a start, toilets and showers account for half of all water used inside Australian homes, but you can halve this simply by fitting a water-saving showerhead and installing a dual-flush toilet. It’s also easy to cut out toxic chemicals by switching to natural cleaning products and bodycare. And there are a number of other simple ways to create a more environmentally friendly bathroom.

Showers

Water-saving showerheads are a cheap, easy way to save both water and energy. Water-saving showerheads use about 9 litres of water a minute, compared to about 25 litres for a standard showerhead. In the average Australian household, 16 per cent of energy is used to heat water, mainly for showers, so we’re talking about a 10 per cent reduction in your electricity or gas bills just from this one step.

You can save even more hot water by reducing your shower time. And don’t have baths – they use a lot more water than showers. A mixer tap can also save water by allowing you to find the right water temperature without a lot of fiddling with the taps.

When replacing your hot water system, choose solar hot water. Check out current state and Federal rebate schemes – often installing a solar hot water system costs little more than a standard system, yet it will save thousands of dollars in energy bills, as well as not producing any greenhouse gas emissions. A solar hot water system needs north-facing roof. If you don’t have suitable roof space you can install a heat exchange system instead. This works like a fridge in reverse and doesn’t need direct sunlight, but still qualifies for solar hot water rebates.

Toilets

Toilets account for about 20 per cent of your home’s water use. Again, you can easily halve that with a dual-flush toilet. An old-fashioned single flush toilet uses about 11 litres per flush, while modern dual-flush toilets typically use three litres for the short flush and six litres for the long flush. (Some use as little as 4.5 litres for the long flush.)

You can also connect your toilets (and washing machines) to a rainwater tank, so you are flushing your toilet with water from the tank. If you are installing a rainwater tank, you will get an extra rebate for doing this. Alternatively, you could go all the way and install a dry composting toilet, which doesn’t use any water at all – and even produces compost for your garden. A small extractor fan removes any smell.

Sinks

Fit a water aerator to your tap. They cost less than $10 and will halve the water flow from your tap. A few behaviour changes can also save a fair amount of water here, such as turning off the tap while brushing your teeth and using the plug when washing your hands.

Reduce chemicals

The typical bathroom cabinet is full of synthetic, and often toxic, chemicals. They are found in toilet cleaners, bleach, perfumes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner and so on. But you can easily replace all of these with natural cleaners and cosmetics, which use plant and mineral ingredients. They are easily available from organic and health food stores or online. Microfibre cloths are also great for cleaning smooth surfaces without any detergent.
Alternatively, you can make many natural cleaners using simple ingredients such as lemon, vinegar, eucalyptus oil and bicarbonate of soda.

Use natural and/or recycled materials

When building or refurbishing a bathroom, look for natural materials such as ceramic tiles, timber or bamboo flooring, natural linoleum, solid wood cabinets (rather than particleboard, which contains toxic chemicals in the glue), natural stone and tiles made from recycled glass. Use organic cotton towels – non-organic cotton requires a lot of chemical pesticides and fertiliser.

Windows

Make sure your bathroom windows can be opened to let out smells and condensation – opening the window uses less energy than an extractor fan and improves air quality.