UK households urged to reuse shower water for 2 key tasks | UK | News

Water bills for households in England and Wales are increasing by an average of £123 a year, bringing the average annual bill up to £603, or an increase of around £10 per month. How much your bill rises will depend on your water supplier, but there are some simple and immediate steps you can take to reduce your water bill. Members of the MoneySavingExpert community have explained the two main ways shower and bath water can be successfully re-used, potentially saving hundreds of pounds. The first tip is to put the plug in the bath while showering. Once you have finished your shower do not take the plug out, instead re-use the water to water your houseplants or use it to water your garden. A hosepipe ban is looking more likely this summer after an exceptionally dry spring with the Environment Agency saying that without a period of prolonged rainfall the risk of bans was “medium” while one well-placed source at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs told the Daily Express bans were now "almost inevitable". Making sure you re-use your bath water could mean the difference between a wilted garden and one in full bloom come June. The second tip MSE users agree on, is to use any bath or shower water to flush the toilet. This could save people money if they are on a water meter, although one MoneySaver explains how they used the trick for environmental reasons. "You can either pour water directly into the toilet bowl (the pressure of the water should push everything through) or pour it into the cistern to use when you flush." Other water-saving tips from Ofwat include: - Using a bowl in the sink when washing fruit, vegetables of dishes. You can then use the waste water to water your plants.
- Fill a jug of water and put it in the fridge for when you want a cool drink.
- Turning off the tap when you clean your teeth. A running tap uses up to nine litres of water a minute.
- Wait until you have a full load before using your washing machine or your dishwasher. Some new washing machines use less than seven litres of water for each kilogramme of clothes, while modern dishwashers can us as little as 10 to 15 litres of water a cycle.
- If possible, take a shower instead of a bath. A five-minute shower uses about 40 litres of water. This is about half the volume of a standard bath.
- Use a water-saving device in your toilet cistern. Depending on the size of your cistern, you could save between one and three litres each time you flush the toilet.
- Using a watering can in the garden instead of a sprinkler or a hosepipe. Garden sprinklers and hosepipes left running can use between 500 and 1,000 litres of water an hour.
- Think about fitting a water butt to collect rainwater off your roof. Water butts usually store about 200 litres of water. As well as being better for watering your plants, using rainwater in the garden reduces the amount of treated water you use.
- Check your property regularly for leaks on your internal plumbing.
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Posted: 2025-05-16 06:39:38
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