Two weeks ago, eight Earth911 staffers made a pledge to stop shaving for 14 days, a nod to Budweiser’s water-saving Grow One campaign.
Some of us look distinguished, a few of us are itchy and more than a few are itching to reach for a razor now that the challenge is officially over. But all of us helped save a pretty impressive amount of water in the process.
Four of Earth911's no-shave participants. Photo: Earth911
According to Budweiser, the average shave uses between three and 10 gallons of water – we’ll say five, for statistical simplicity. That means over 14 days, the Earth911 staff saved around 560 gallons of water.
We also extended an invitation to participate to all of our friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter, who then liked, shared and tweeted it several hundred times. If all 43,400+ of Earth911’s Facebook fans passed on shaving for just three days, we’d save nearly 660,000 gallons of water, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, according to EPA figures.
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The material waste diverted by abstaining from shaving is a little harder to tally, but is still significant enough to ponder.
- Most shaving cream is packaged in aerosol cans, which are fully recyclable but can be dangerous if not properly disposed of.
- Recycling of disposable razors and razor cartridges is tricky, given both health concerns and the tedious process of separating delicate metal blades from plastic, so recycling options in the U.S. are severely limited.
- Rechargeable electric razors cut down on material waste, but still must use electricity from the grid.
- Eco-friendly straight-razor users – well, this campaign probably saved you plenty of time, if not a few nicks and cuts.
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