> 5. Collect rain water and/or use less water
Not sure about that -- With modern pollution rain water is not likely to be safe to drink (depends on your location)
> 9. fuck sugary drinks
Massive yes! Amazing for your own health too.
Not sure about that -- With modern pollution rain water is not likely to be safe to drink (depends on your location)
> 9. fuck sugary drinks
Massive yes! Amazing for your own health too.
Also washing, showering can be done with rainwater if you are really a minimalist.
Professional car wash places are required (depending on location) to collect and dispose of their waste water in a safe way. When you wash the car in the driveway, the waste water will either go into the ground or the storm drains, neither of which will ensure that the waster is cleaned before reentering the environment.
If the rain is falling on your car it will have the same issue, no?
There are lots of "grey water" uses that don't require drinkable water, like watering plants, flushing toilets.
Yes. I've heard/read grey mentioned many times in permaculture articles.
I like the fact that permaculture takes a systems or holistic approach.
Another nice, small but useful example of permaculture design is the concept of guilds, when it comes to planting crops around a house.
They plant by category, in concentric bands called guilds, with the guild nearest to the house having most commonly used plants such as herbs, then vegetables, then grains, then fruit trees, etc.
So you have to walk less to tend to or harvest them.
Edit: I may have used the term "guild" incorrectly.
The Wikipedia article on permaculture uses it differently, under the section "Guilds".
Guilds are about companion planting - they're combination of plants that form a small ecosystem where they provide benefit to each other. E.g. comfrey is often used around fruit trees to break up subsoil (it has very long taproots, to 10 feet or so), and as a prolific mulch producer (cut it back every couple months, and chop and drop the leaves in place). Nitrogen fixing plants are common, as a way of providing nutrients. Etc.
Water availability is also very different from country to country, region to region, and even town to town. How your water usage affects the environment depends on so many things.
Air pollution does change abruptly, but on most places it tends to not do that frequently.
So not really "free" at all, and rather expensive enough that nobody does it...
You can also skip that entirely with a composting toilet. Again depending on your local laws, gray water can often be drained directly outside, potentially through a leech field if required. Plenty of areas allow this for specific uses like washing machines, the only reason it can't be done with standard toilets is because of the solid waste.