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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to ask dh not to leave the tap running?

57 replies

Atwaroverscrabble · 09/12/2011 19:49

Dh has this really irritating (and expensive) habit of leaving the tap running while he brushes his or dd's teeth, not just a trickle but a full on gush while he finds the toothbrush, and the toothpaste, add the latter to the former and then brushes... It takes ages!

Tonight i was in the bathroom with him and i simply said 'hon, could you please not leave the tap running like that?' to which he grumbled and moaned that he'd have to put it back on etc but he turned it off, put the toothpase on the brush and then turned it on again? This time he left it on fast again so i said 'are you just leaving it on just to wind me up?' and he got really angry and said he was fed up with being spoken to like that etc...

Aibu to have asked this? We are on a water meter and perpetually skint!

OP posts:
MrsPeterDoherty · 09/12/2011 23:23

How is the water wasted? It doesn't disappear.....if the water companies mended the pipes so there are no leaks, the water would just repeatedly go on a cyclical journey

Spuddybean · 09/12/2011 23:26

i think the waste is that it needs to be recycled after not being 'used' just run through.

PelvicFloorOfHighTensileTinsel · 09/12/2011 23:29

MrsPeter - water needs to be treated before it comes out the tap (to make it safe to drink) and again after it goes down the plughole (to make it safe to release into rivers). It is a wasteful process even if every drop that's meant to stays in the pipes.

SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots · 09/12/2011 23:47

MrsPeter that is a very ignorant statement. It costs a lot of money to treat the water you take for granted and make it safe for you to have on demand. Leaking pipes are a different matter altogether. Water does not go down your plug hole, get treated, and arrive back again. It's not recycling.

PigletJohn · 09/12/2011 23:48

well, spuddy, that's £2.50 worth of water he wastes in a year by my reckoning.

I can see it's one of the things that annoys you, but compare it to the cost of buying one cup of coffee a year, say, and not drinking it.

Or taking the car on one extra trip to the supermarket, or buying one extra glossy magazine a year. Or buying two bottles of Fairy liquid instead of Aldi.

I don't suppose there are many people on this earth without any irritating habits.

RumourOfAHurricane · 09/12/2011 23:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Spuddybean · 10/12/2011 00:10

haha! i am actually really laid back about everything! (i concede my post may have given a different impression).

i know you are right about the money, it's more the pointlessness of it that bothers me. and i don't nag about it (i have a policy of not nagging about anything - i ask, reason, use an illustration and then leave it - which is possibly why my dp does no washing, ironing, cooking or cleaning, but he never expects me to do it either) i pointed it out after 2 years, then illustrated the waste with a pint glass (we were both laughing as i did it). When he complained the water bill had gone up i suggested some saving etc.

it just seems weird to me.

RumourOfAHurricane · 10/12/2011 00:16

This reply has been deleted

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Spuddybean · 10/12/2011 00:17

sorry about that - mock anger is lost in typing translation!

FunkyChicken · 10/12/2011 00:37

I'm getting so mad reading these. Send these idiots on a trip to a developing country where many children and women have to walk literally miles every day carrying buckets for every precious drop of water their family needs - and it probably won't even be clean water. Tell your DHs to thank their lucky stars they've had the good fortune to be born in a part of the world they can turn on a tap any time and to not be such a stupid wasteful twats. Rant over.

FunkyChicken · 10/12/2011 00:40

Get them to look at this

www.wateraid.org/uk/

Highly unlikely I know.

FunkyChicken · 10/12/2011 00:43

and this? (video)

They can donate the few quid they save on the water bills?

www.wateraid.org/uk/donate/2011_donate_pages/10111.asp

(I don't work in the water industry by the way!)

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 00:43

hello funky

is there some way, if he turns the tap off when brushing his teeth, it will help people in a dry country?

EcoLady · 10/12/2011 00:48

OP is certainly Not BU.

It'll be a darn sight more than 4 pints wasted each time. 10 litres would be a more realistic estimate.

Every single water company wants people to use less water. It's not about how much one person wastes in one day, it's about the whole lot that's been treated and pumped to every home to go straight into the wastewater system to be pumped and treated again. That's madness! It all costs energy and that water is no longer available for use as drinking water supply for that bit of the water cycle.

Yes, this does make sense. Yes, I used to work in the water industry and I do know what I'm talking about.

www.anglianwater.co.uk/environment/using-water-wisely/

www.thameswater.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/corp/hs.xsl/3786.htm

www.stwater.co.uk/server.php?show=nav.6168

www.yorkshirewater.com/save-water-and-money.aspx

www.wessexwater.co.uk/saving-water/toptips/default.aspx?id=5200

www.unitedutilities.com/usewaterwisely.aspx

www.southernwater.co.uk/homeAndLeisure/waterEfficiency/default.asp

www.southwestwater.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1452

www.nwl.co.uk/Usingwaterwisely.aspx

www.dwrcymru.com/en/Environment/Water-Efficiency.aspx

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 00:52

that's great, EcoLady.

Remind me, please. In the Thames Water region, is it still the case that more water leaks out through holes in the pipes than is used domestically in all the houses?

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 00:56

btw spuddy, if you put these inserts in the spouts of the taps, the water will come out in a fine spray at greatly reduced flow. Your local water co might have a similar free offer

Wash basin tap inserts

FunkyChicken · 10/12/2011 01:01

Hi Piglet John, water saved here doesn't help those in other countries of course (unless you donate the money saved) but it just feels wrong to me. Doesn't it bother you?
(As well as dumb for other reasons as ecolady points out.)

Running a tap that is not been used and just going straight down plughole just feels immoral to me. Its like throwing away good food.

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 01:03

of all the sources of waste in the world, a couple of pounds worth of water in a year is not at the top of my list.

Jux · 10/12/2011 01:17

I used to do this! DH asked me not to when we were first married, about 16 years ago. I haven't done it since.

It really is only sensible. We don't have - and have never had - a water meter, but it simply makes sense not to waste water like that. I'm quite embarrassed I used to do it.

CinnabarRed · 10/12/2011 06:21

Quite aside from the water morality argument, if you've told him you hate it then surely he should stop doing it out of respect for you.

PigletJohn, your points are entirely valid at the level of a single household. But gross then up across the whole nation and the sums start to get really material. £2.50 per year per household with 10 million households is £25 million - £25 million of wasted chemicals and energy to clean wasted water.

That's the problem with us humans. None of us individually does much damage, but there are so damn many of us that collectively we're an environmental disaster.

And it may be small beer compared to other examples of waste, but that just means that we should stop the other waste too. It doesn't justify letting water waste go.

mrsmellow · 10/12/2011 07:04

Exactly CinnabarRed - it may be a drop in the ocean (do you like what I did there Grin ), but it all adds up.

My DH doesn't do this anymore - he'd just never thought about it. But he still likes to wash the dishes with the tap running.. need a dishwasher if it really is true they use less water!

SJisontheway · 10/12/2011 08:00

Actually, based on PJ's figure of 1.7 cents for 10 litres (which is much more realistic than 4 pints) a family of 5 brushing their teeth 3 times a day would waste over 92 pound in a year through this single activity. Add to this all the other little ways we can waste water and it certainly does add up.

lottiegb · 10/12/2011 08:37

It is a small thing individually, in a bigger context but the deliberate continuation of something that irritates every time is an issue in a relationship and, as a population, if we cannot address small, simple easy things, we don't stand much chance against the large, complicated, difficult ones. I'd see it in the context of 'change the things you can change, accept the things you can't and have the wisdom to know the difference'.

I don't get the 'double negative argument' of 'yeah but the pipes leak and that's bad, so in I should exacerbate the problem by behaving deliberately and avoidably badly too'. Hardly persuasive and sounds like a recipe for a miserable life.

Next time a new reservoir 'needs' to be created, displacing people from their homes, flooding farmland and wildlife habitat (as has happened many times in the UK), perhaps your DH and supporters would like to make the case to the locals?

PigletJohn · 10/12/2011 11:04

I don't approve of people who run their washing machines several times a day at a cost of more than 50 litres each time.

I don't approve of people who have two baths a day at a cost of 120 litres a time.

You are welcome to turn off your basin tap while you brush your teeth, same as I do, but it is insignificant compared to other uses. And in the UK, the basin tap is a negligible cost and impact. Flushing the WC once a day when you throw some tissue down it uses more.

IMO people are just irritated because it's something their partner does and they don't.

DoubleLLthenanA · 10/12/2011 11:22

YANBU at all. Annoys the hell out of me too. Or not turning it off properly so it slowly drips hot water while everyone's out at work and school.