Everyday Environmentalism- Tips For Conserving Water In The Kitchen
When it comes to saving water in the kitchen, a few small steps can make a big difference. Consider these tips for reducing your water consumption every day.
Rather than running the tap when cleaning vegetables, use a bowl of water. Later, reuse it to water outdoor plants. Reusing water from rinsing out the coffeepot for outdoor plants, the compost or lawn is something we do all the time.
Rich in nitrogen as well as some trace minerals, coffeepots should be diluted with water before using. Choose a different group of plants every day and you may find you no longer have to water or fertilize them very often at all.
Cooking water (pasta, steamed vegetables, boiled potatoes etc.) can be used in the same way – just let it cool first. All of these water sources contain extra nutrients that will aid your gardens immensely.
Very hot cooking water can be used to kill weeds – simply pour it directly on the weed and around its roots.
After meals, scrape your dishes into the compost bucket before rinsing. While rinsing, place other soiled dishes, jars and utensils underneath while you work; it will begin the pre-soaking process – reducing labor and water use. Anything caught in the sink basket can be contributed to the compost, too.
Save about 5 gallons of water per washing by doing dishes in a few inches of hot soapy water. It may seem funny to do this – but by turning the hot water tap on to rinse the dishes into the sink the level will slowly increase and will maintain a hot temperature. This way, another sink full of water solely for rinsing is no longer necessary. We sometimes use rinse water to pre-soak stuck on dishes as well.
Store drinking water in the refrigerator. Rather than letting the tap run to get a cool drink of water. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, purchase a filter pitcher or add a filter to your tap. You will save money over buying bottled water, and the energy used, and the pollution created to produce, ship, and dispose of all those plastic bottles.
Control the aerator of your faucet. The screw-on tip of the faucet, called the aerator, ultimately determines the maximum flow rate of a faucet. Aerators are inexpensive to replace and they can be one of the most cost-effective water conservation measures.
Now, if you measured the amount of water saved each day by those simple methods we just described – there would be dozens of gallons of pure, drinkable water left untouched in the reservoir. By reducing hot water consumption, our energy bills are a little bit smaller. All this, just from the kitchen sink!
