The garden is a great place to start reducing your footprint from using less water to growing our own food.
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Water
Most people use at least 10 litres of water a day in their garden. |
On a hot day this can increase to 50 per cent of our homes’ water use. Much of our water use in the garden is wasteful. Sprinklers can use as much water in an hour (300-650 litres) as a family of four uses in one day!
The water that you use to make your grass grow is clean enough to drink. Energy is needed to clean this water and to move it from the local reservoir to your garden. This energy has an associated carbon cost. Saving water saves carbon.
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Waste
How can the way you garden impact your waste footprint? |
Garden waste like grass cuttings is very heavy, and once you throw it in the bin it is transported to the local landfill, using a lot of energy, and then very slowly rots down releasing the harmful greenhouse gas methane on the process. Fertilisers and pesticides used in the garden are energy intensive in their manufacture and so have an associated carbon cost.
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Food
Food grown in the garden is fresher and tastier! |
As it is not transported long distances less fuel is needed for it to reach your plate and carbon is saved. If gardening methods are organic and you use your own compost the impact is even lower.
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