“In real life you get out of the shower naked, so why wouldn’t you do it on screen? It’s just a normal thing.” – Nicholas Hoult
You might not be lucky enough to have Firehouse Subs in your area. This sub chain was started by firefighters and, through simple little touches, it has maintained something of a “mom and pop” feel despite the fact that it is manned by high school aged kids who greet each guest with an unenthusiastic “Welcome to Firehouse” in a voice that suggests they are suffering through some sort of contemporary acned holocaust. One of the touches I like is having stories of heroic efforts by real-life firefighters printed on their cups, another is the reason for this blog.
In each Firehouse Subs location you have the opportunity to buy used pickle buckets for just $2. Every time I would go in, I would eye the pickle bucket, admiring the ingenuity of encouraging patrons to reuse something that the restaurant would be tossing in a landfill otherwise. The money collected goes to the Firehouse Subs Safety Foundation which provides firemen with necessary equipment and funds tools to inform the public about fire safety, so there’s a commendable philanthropic element on top of the environmental benefit. Besides, the red five gallon buckets just looked so damn handy.
So on one sub run, Brendan and I bought one. In our garage it went for several weeks and every time I’d look at it my little brain would go “hmmm” wondering what useful thing we could do with it. Then one day, some suggestions we’d read met in our minds with that red bucket.
Now when we’re getting ready to take a shower, we place the bucket under the faucet while the water gets warm. I was a little surprised to see with my own eyes how much water is normally wasted in the warm-up process. In two days with four showers between the two of us, the bucket can be nearly full.
We’re able to use the water for other things, rather than it going down the drain. I’ve used it to wash off patio furniture, for example, but mainly we use it to water our plants.
Kind of an amazing little bucket, when you add it all up: first it held pickles (extremely important work, in my book), then earned money that will help save lives, successfully avoided the landfill where it would have taken untold years to decompose, and now it helps save precious water.
