On dishwashing and droughts

24 Oct 2007

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

I am trying to be so much more green than I used to be, so your column has helped me with the nagging questions. Now I wonder about living in a drought-stricken state with water restrictions and bulging landfills.

Saturday I had a wedding shower for a dear niece and invited many women relatives. I decided to forgo convenience and served everything on beautiful plates, no paper plates, no plastic silverware, no plastic cups. It was lovely, and it felt more environmentally correct than usual family gatherings which create a mountain of garbage. Plus, it didn't seem to create a lot more effort on my part.

Then as we washed and dishwashed everything, I thought about the water restrictions in Georgia. We are experiencing a drought of historic proportions -- so is it better to contribute to the landfill or use the water for washing dishes?

Perplexed in Georgia

Dearest Perplexed,

Sadly, because of the drought, there is a clear answer to guide your immediate future. Your county, DeKalb, is under a drought-response Level Four complete outdoor watering ban. According to the Oct. 15 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the state is considering further water rationing in metro Atlanta, a step which is apparently unprecedented for a major metropolitan area. The winter is forecast to be mild and provide little additional water for next spring. It's all looking like an emergency.

To wash or not to wash?

Photo: iStockphoto

If you had thrown your baby shower under normal conditions, we might hem and haw about how the difference between reusable and disposable place settings relates to the lifetime use of the plates as well as the way they were washed. I touched on all this as it related to travel mugs, last year. The landfill, in fact, is less important to the choice between permanent and temporary plates than is the energy spent to make and wash both types of plates. To say that another way, the beginning of a plate's life is more important than the end when we look at the overall analysis of what to use for a party.

During a water shortage, though, water conservation measures take top priority. As of this writing, the authorities have not commanded you to limit your personal indoor water use, but I think you should go ahead and start to do so. It's not hard. Whenever you come to a conservation choice moment, choose in favor of less water. When you do the dishes by hand, use a wash tub and a rinse tub instead of running the faucet. When you throw a party, use disposable cups and plates, and don't wash them for reuse. If you compost at home you could buy paper plates and cups and shred them for composting. Don't flush the toilet after every pee, do it after every third time or so. Check your toilet for leaks by putting blue food coloring in the tank and checking to see whether it appears in the bowl. Fix other plumbing leaks, take shorter showers and no baths. Only run full wash loads of clothing, only use your dishwasher if it is efficient (newish). Cool water in the fridge rather than by running the faucet. Don't use the garbage disposal.

Ask Umbra continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

If you are comfortable talking about what you're doing to conserve water, you might start to mention it to people whenever the drought comes up in conversation. Just a few things about the house, to help out, you know. Here is a Georgia water conservation site that offers outdoor water conservation resources as well as indoor tips, if you'd like to spread it around. Best of luck down there in Georgia, and thanks for doing your part.

Parchedly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (10 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Dealing with Drought

You were right to put garbage disposals at the end; in the typical household, you should do ten other things to save lots more water than worrying about your disposer. Studies show typical household use attributed to a disposer is @ 1 gallon day, if it can be measured at all.... so fix leaks, take shorter showers, launder less, etc.
Also worth noting: food waste averages 70% water, so grinding and flushing it through a disposer releases that water back into the system vs. hauling it around in trucks from curbside to landfills.

by kendallgaia at 2:30 PM on 24 Oct 2007

garbage disposals

While the garbage disposal may not make up a large portion of household water use, putting food waste into the sewage system increases the load of pollutants the STP has to deal with, and to my way of thinking is a great misuse of a precious resource.

Composting, worm farming, etc is much better than either using your garbage disposal unit or sending it to landfill.

by ansaus at 7:43 PM on 24 Oct 2007

Drought

Texas is flooded, Atlanta is dry. I think Mother Earth has decided that we are a mistake, is trying to get rid of us.

by dbeerslayer at 8:41 PM on 24 Oct 2007

saving water

If you need to let the water run to get hot water--
--put a bucket or pitcher under the faucet. Turn off water once its hot. Remove bucket of colder water.
Do whatever you're going to do with the running hot water.
Put the water you saved on your plants, or flush a toilet with it, or boil it to make tea. Or put it in
your automatic coffee maker and make coffee.
Or whatever.

You will usually have about a gallon of water to do something else with and that you just saved. You could even drink it !

by mads2 at 9:55 PM on 24 Oct 2007

Individual conservation is only a virtue

Unfortunately, for every water conservation saint, there is a water wasteful devil that tips the balance the other way. In other words, you can't conserve your way out of a drought.

Don't misunderstand me, regulations stopping watering of the lawn and greenery, halting large industrial users, and other gigantic usages and users will make a big dent, but the individual has very little impact.

If the individual wants to make a big impact, they should become politically active and lobby for higher government spending on water projects. Yeah, i

On the other hand, individual conservation may is beneficial psychologically for giving individuals a sense of control, and it is definately aesthetically displeasing to see someone wasting some scarce resource, but don't confuse ugly with destructive.

by dobermanmacleod at 4:02 AM on 25 Oct 2007

More ideas to save water...

..., some more - some less efficient, can be found at my website under the advice category "water consumption".

And as long as individuals waste water and tolerate the waste of water or other resources, the government (or other organizations believed by some to be miraculously and entirely disconnected from the control and responsibility of human individuals) will continue to do the same. It is all and only about individual responsibility. If you do it and respect others doing the same, it will continue.

Karsten
http://www.polluteless.com

by PolluteLessDotCom at 4:50 AM on 25 Oct 2007

The land of opportunities

In Europe people on average use about a third of the water in the US without missing the other 2 thirds and basically living the same lifestyle. Also in this respect America is the land of opportunities... to cut down drastically without dramatically changing one's lifestyle should be possible (the same goes for energy).

by waterman at 1:31 PM on 25 Oct 2007

A few more:

1. I have an at-faucet shutoff valve on both my shower head and kitchen sink. Similar to this: http://www.green-logic.net/rasashshoffv.html. You can see that they are very inexpensive, quite adaptable, and you can buy them at local hardware stores too.

Is very easy/convenient to shut off while you are lathering, washing hair, brushing teeth, or soaping dishes. Then, flip, and water again flows...wee!

Becomes very force of habit.

2. Also force of habit, is the reduced flushing. As they say in the Islands:

"In the land of fun and sun, we never flush for number 1." (PineSol is in plentiful supply!)

Flush right away for solids. Otherwise, flush once per day for liquids. Be careful of paper use, and do remember to flush at night. :-/ ...And, yes, if you are expecting company, you could forego this method for that ocassion.

Put rain barrels at each of your downspouts for when rain does come. Even if it is just a large garbage can, use it. Pretty much just suitable water for landscape or exterior washings (car, lawn furniture), but still better than using potable water for that purpose.
If you cannot afford to have leaky faucets repaired (although do first check the cheap washer replacement), put a container beneath them to collect the drips and use that clean water.

NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

by Greta at 4:52 PM on 25 Oct 2007

changing your diet can also help conserve water

Thinking globally, one of the most effective ways to both conserve water and reduce water pollution is to reduce or eliminate animal products from your diet. This may not effect your local water supply but will effect water supply else where in the country and world.

Annually in the United States, farm animals produce 1.4 billion tons of feces and urine, and much of this waste--millions of gallons--eventually finds its way into neighboring waterways, devastating the environment and wildlife. It takes much more water, as well as land and fossil fuels, to produce a pound of animal protein than vegetable and soy protein.

by amc89 at 8:12 AM on 26 Oct 2007

garbage disposals?

food scraps are not a "pollutant" to wastewater treatment plants, they are a resource; most sludge in the U.S. is now processed into fertilizer products, a millennium-old means of returning human/food waste to land; in NYC, effectively 100% is beneficially reused, most meeting EPA Class A standards...the richer the organic mix, the better the biosolids...
solids actually help wastewater treatment plants operate efficiently, and many are good at efficient energy capture (esp when compared to landfills)...
if you backyard or worm compost, that's great; but in dense urban areas municipal systems cause that to happen, and human waste/food scraps not really any different, after all...

by kendallgaia at 1:41 PM on 26 Oct 2007
[ Parent ]

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?

Wash and Dry

On dishwashing and droughts