Condensed soda pop. Would come in smaller containers with half the water removed. Saves container and shipping costs.
Paper bags made out of papyrus. Save the old growth forest with swamp reeds.
Require all children’s socks to be gray. Grey prevents need for bleach, and if you lose some in the dryer then the others will always match up. Never throw out an odd sock again.
Similarly, require all hair dye to be gray. Removes the stigma and nobody will have to cover gray any more, saving tons of costly chemicals.
Place exact GPS source location stickers on all food, so you can eat local, and find out exactly which cow to blame for that mustard weed flavored quart.
Promote planting boulevards in bushes that attract fireflies, to reduce the need for street lamps.
We gotta deal with the underlying cause of the problem, not tack on band-aid solutions to each individual symptom. Destroy. All. Humans. Problem solved 'least till something worse evolves in our place. But that’s life, ain’t it?
Have Al Gore, the guy who invented the Internet,[sup]1[/sup] figure out a way to use teleconferencing so he and other people don’t have to jet around the world and increase their carbon footprint just to discuss “global climate change”.
I was going to start a thread awhile back, but might as well mention it here.
Why don’t they have sinks in bathrooms where the water goes into the toilet storage for flushing? It could have a “switch” if you wanted it to go directly to the sewer, but otherwise, just washing your hands, or wetting a comb, or rinsing out your toothbrush…all that water could just as easily go into the storage area for water in the toilet and used to flush. This could save lots of water.
Also, I still can’t believe that America is so far behind when it comes to water heaters. Way back when - in the 1970’s - I saw great water heaters in Germany that were small, installed above the shower/bath/sink and only when you turned on the hot water would a pilot light kick on and heat ONLY THE WATER YOU WERE USING, and not heating water in some huge-ass tank that sat there all day.
Ooh, a chance to plug my favorite little house in the world! It’s not exactly your idea, but something similar: At my school, I volunteer at this live-in demo home for sustainable living. One of the past student projects is the Wash ‘n’ Flush, a DIY toilet modification to turn your toilet into a handwashing station (diagrams and instructions included). It’s… kinda mesmerizing, actually. After I use the bathroom and was my hands, I typically stand there enthralled until it fills back up completely.
They also advocate decreasing the amount of water used per flow by adding a brick, a filled 2-liter bottle, or something of similar volume to the water tank. You can always flush twice if necessary, but most times it won’t be.
As for the water heaters, I agree. Tankless heaters ARE available in the US AFAIK, but they’re rare. I’ve always wondered why.
Because of all the disadvantages listed on that page. I’ve thought about switching to a tankless system but decided it isn’t worth the cost and hassle. The cost is so much more than a standard tank system it simply isn’t worth it.
That’s an old idea. Sodastreams were somewhat popular in the 1970s/80s in the UK at least. You bought the syrup and gas cartridges and made it with tap water.
Set ups similar to that are in most houses in Japan and have been for years and years.
You have a separate sink area for doing what not, brushing your teeth etc, but for just washing your hands after using the toilet, the top of the toilet tank is a mini sink and the runoff water goes directly into the cistern.
Hens should be crossed with frogs so they can lay eggs by the dozen.
Or, frogs could be engineered to lay one big egg. Then you could keep them in the kitchen fishbowl and save all packaging and shipping waste.
'least till something worse evolves in our place. But that’s life, ain’t it?