Students in dormitories make up a lot of the water usage that occurs on campus. Unfortunately, they do not appear to be aware of the water conservation efforts that are taking place. If there is more publicity about the conservation efforts, students may care more and actively partake in more water reducing activities.
One easy method to spread awareness is to have a little signs on mirros various bathrooms across campus encouraging students to save water. If there's a friendly reminder when people use water, they may just take the effort to conserve.
Also, a dorm wide competition can take place in which the dorm that conserves the most water (and perhaps energy) will win a certain prize. As water is prices based on the rate of usage, a savings in water may result in a much lower water bill. A possible incentive would be to use part of these savings to reward dorms with good percentages.
Here are some simple water conservation techniques for the dorm
While all 6 gallon toilets have been replaced with 1.6 gallon low flush toilets, there exists an even more efficient toilet that only uses .8 gallons of water per flush for liquid waste. These half flush toilets are used in Australia, although it is starting to infiltrate American markets. Unfortunately, this method is more expensive than the low-flush toilets and may not be a good investment currently, as the toilets have just recently been changed.
Another bathroom option would be to use compost toilets. These toilets use composting instead of water to dispose of human waste. This is very water efficient, as no water is needed. However, this system is not yet designed for large buildings.
WAVE (Water Alliances for Voluntary Efficiency) is an EPA program aimed at conserving water while at the same time increasing profitability. WAVE provides software that tracks water use in laundry, irrigation, and cooling towers. This software also performs cost-analysis and budgeting of various conservation methods. Once a member of WAVE, members agree to use the surveying equipment and switch to the water saving alternatives if feasible. While MIT may not experience the amount of savings other have, it may still benefit from this program.
One way of improving MIT's water efficiency is to implement grey water systems. Grey water is domestic waste water produced by sinks, showers, baths, washing machines, and dishwashers. Grey water is characterized by low organic and chemical content. Because MIT must not only pay for its water, but it must also pay to dispose of it, it is beneficial to recycle water as much as possible. Grey water involved down cycling the water to lower uses such as using it for toilet water or underground irrigation systems.
If you have any suggestions/comments regarding MIT's water conservation efforts, please contact Raul Varela Project Manager for Water Initiatives at MIT and Utilities Engineer.
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