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.
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
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Comments
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kendallgaia Posted 7:30 am
24 Oct 2007
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.
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ansaus Posted 12:43 pm
24 Oct 2007
Composting, worm farming, etc is much better than either using your garbage disposal unit or sending it to landfill.
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dbeerslayer Posted 1:41 pm
24 Oct 2007
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mads2 Posted 2:55 pm
24 Oct 2007
--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 !
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dobermanmacleod Posted 9:02 pm
24 Oct 2007
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.
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PolluteLessDotCom Posted 9:50 pm
24 Oct 2007
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
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waterman Posted 6:31 am
25 Oct 2007
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Greta Posted 9:52 am
25 Oct 2007
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.
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amc89 Posted 1:12 am
26 Oct 2007
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.
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kendallgaia Posted 6:41 am
26 Oct 2007
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...
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