Fix-it Fanatic

What does fixing up your house have to do with Canada’s water? Plenty. The leftover paint you dump down the drain, and the salt you sprinkle on your icy front steps find their way into our waterways. What will you pledge to do to save Canada’s lakes, rivers and oceans?

Choose Your Challenge!

Clean up after recycle day

Have you ever noticed how much litter is in the streets after garbage day? As workers are tossing recycling into the truck, a can here and a container there inevitably escape and find their way onto the street. This litter washes into our waterways via storm drains. But plastic garbage doesn’t break down and can actually choke wildlife that mistakes it for food and can drown others that get tangled up in the debris. Take a couple of minutes and pick up the straggles left behind.

Drain Your Hot Tub Onto Landscaped Areas

Chilling out in the hot tub is a great way to unwind after a long day, so when it comes to maintaining your tranquililty tub, do it responsibly. Firstly, wait for the tub to cool down before you dump the chlorinated water out. When you drain it, ensure the water is pouring onto lawn, away from storm drains. There’s no need to add extra chemicals to storm drains.

Dispose of Paint Properly

Pride yourself on your superb painting skills? Now you can pride yourself on painting with the environment in mind too. After you’ve finished a room, make sure you squeeze excess paint from your brushes and rollers on newspaper before you go ahead and rinse your tools. And if you’ve got paint left over, drop them off at your local household hazardous waste collection centre.

Opt for Brick and Stone Over Pavement

Sure it only takes an afternoon to lay down pavement on your driveway, but an interesting interlocking brick pattern would look so much better! Plus it’s better for our waterways. Runoff will seep into the cracks and crevices of brick or interlocking stone, and will have a harder time making its way to storm drains.

Check Your Septic System

If you’ve got a septic system, you’ll want to be sure to check it every three to five years. When you leave it too long, the nutrients and pollutants in household wastewater like nitrogen and phosphorous in the tank can seep into ground and surface water. Blech.

Check for Leaky Faucets

That drip drip drop might not seem like a lot, but you’d be surprised how much it can add up to! If you have just one faucet in your house that’s leaking water at just three drips a minute, that equals 104 gallons of water a year! Clear your conscience and fix that faucet today!

Go Low Flow

A 20-minute shower can use up to 380 litres of hot water. Swap your regular showerhead for a low-flow version instead and you can cut that impact in half. Using less water really means treating less water.