In celebration of Blog Action Day, thousands of blogs around the world have chosen to write about the environment. The topic is open, as long as you discuss ways that we can protect the precious planet we live on. Here is my submission.

When David and I got home the other day, we noticed a back of plumbing parts hanging on the front door. Apparently the plumbing fairy had stopped by the house with his bag of goodies – and I hadn’t even put an 0-ring under my pillow the night before…

Inside the bag we found two sink aerators, a new shower head, and a big blue plastic bag that sort of looked like a hot water bag you might use if you weren’t feeling well…or if you were constipated perhaps. But I digress.

Opening up the bag we discovered an assortment of inexpensive (and incompatible) goodies. We had the two faucet aerators that I just mentioned, one for the kitchen sink and one for the bathroom sink. Unfortunately, they did not fit. Apparently we have non-standard faucets, even though they are relatively brand new and from Home Depot. Is it wrong for me to assume that Home Depot would carry products with standard fittings?

So as we tried to save the environment in Sacramento, the score started out in the negative. Aerators – useless.

On to the shower head. Miraculously, the shower head fit just perfectly. It has settings for massage, and normal, and because it’s a water saver, it actually gives us more force in the smaller amount of water it sends out -so we don’t even notice that it’s low-flow. This one is a win, score one for the shower-head. Plus, it’s a very good brand – Niagara. That stands for waterfall, so you know it’s going to be good.

Next up, the toilet tank bank. I don’t know why they call it a bank, but the front of the bag says “deposit and save water and money”. I’m not sure if they wanted us to put pennies or water into the bag, but we opted for water, even though the pennies would be put to better use sitting in our toilet tank than at any retail store.

The big blue bag is now full of water and hanging inside the toilet tank, reducing the amount of water in each flush. Another win for the City of Sacramento Department of Utilities. (a quick update – David actually removed the bag after a few flushes because it kept getting caught inside the tank – note, if you have a relatively thin watertank on your toilet, this product wont’ work for you)

Toilet Tank Bank – useless.

If every person in the neighborhood actually uses some of these products, it should go a long way in reducing water consumption in our area – and I am all for it. My part of town isn’t metered at this point, so these products won’t save us any money on our utility bill, but they will help save our environment and provide more water to those who need it (and pay for it).