14 DAY TRIAL // San Diego environmental activist Rob Greenfield has managed to reach his goal of going a whole year without taking a shower in a bid to inspire people to have a more sustainable lifestyle.
Greenfield, who is also an inspirational writer and speaker and founder of The Greenfield Group, started this project with a bike ride across the country, called “Off the Grid Across America” and designed to promote sustainability and eco-friendly living.
He first established a set of rules to follow during the long ride, and the one related to water was to only use it from natural sources like rivers and rain, or from wasted sources like leaky faucets. So, he spent the year bathing in natural water resources instead of showering, and surprisingly he says it wasn't that hard.
“A short time ago I would have thought it crazy to forgo conventional showers,” he said. “Turns out it’s not really a big deal at all. We have a tendency to make instant character judgments based on clothing, style, race, sexual preference, political affiliation, and even bathing habits, and most of the time we’re just absolutely wrong.”
During an entire year, Greenfield used only 2 gallons (7.6 liters) of water a day, while the average American normally uses about 100 gallons (378.5 liters) a day. It's an impressive difference, and it makes us wonder how much water we really waste on a daily basis.
His bike ride took only 100 days, and, when it was over, Rob decided to keep monitoring his water consumption, so he continued to respect the rule and use only natural resources for another nine months.
However, when he returned to his normal life at home, his water usage increased to about 10 to 20 gallons a day but still remained low compared to the average American.
Greenfield wrote an extensive article about his experience on his website in which he tries to explain that the fact that he didn't shower for a year doesn't mean he didn't take care of himself.
“You think I’m really stinky right? You think I smell like some sort of Swamp Monster. Actually, nope. When I say that I haven’t showered that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t bathing. I swam almost every day, and showered in waterfalls, and I used eco-friendly biodegradable soap when I needed to,” he wrote.
Throughout his bike journey, the adventurer also attempted to bring attention to food waste by eating food from grocery store dumpsters.