Environmental Benefits of Water Saving Butts

It seems every year there are concerns about water shortages, with increasing temperatures during the summer months and indeed more ‘Indian summers’ now typifying the climate in the UK over the recent years. This is not to of course mention other water issues like we have seen in Northern Ireland as well as generally the rising price of mains water for households.

Many consumers and also businesses are beginning to implement facilities to accommodate saving and storing water, such as water butts in offices and water butts especially in the garden.
Installing a water butt in the garden can maximise the rainfall in your area and garden and help save households hundreds of pounds in water bills each and every year. These rainwater tanks can be easily positioned in practical areas around the garden, which can make for convenient water filling points for areas close to greenhouses, vegetable patches and allotments. For home owners and professional gardeners you often see a number of water butts dotted around the green landscape at these convenient and practical points.

Water butts collect their rainfall in a variety of ways but the most effective way in accumulating this water is via rainwater gutters off garden buildings such as workshops, garages, sheds, summer houses and even greenhouses themselves. This dramatically increases the surface area that the rainfall falls upon and thus results in a higher amount of collective water, rather than the surface area of the water butt itself.

But it’s not just big and vast gardens that can benefit from the use and installation of water butts and other water saving facilities. Even smaller gardens can accommodate smaller water butts of 100 litres that is especially vital as a lot of these areas tend to not have an outdoor water mains supply. This is exactly the same for older period properties, especially Victorian, where before the advent of readily available mains water, these water saving butts and others were common place.

Nowadays the big wave in domestic living is being not only environmentally friendly but also sustainable and these rainwater tanks can address this need and minimise the use of mains water that is not only economically beneficial but also environmental too, especially when you consider the volume and expense of water from irrigation and hose pipes.


Helen loves her green living and is increasingly looking into more sustainable living and advocates the benefits of installing a water butt in gardens across the country. Less Lettuce provides good consumer information on stockists and pricing on these rainwater tanks.