The Water Challenge Chronicles – Jon, Week 1
I consider myself to be fairly environmentally conscious. I care about the planet as a future home to millions, so I do my part to help aid larger organizations in their goal of educating average consumers like me in the ways of water conservation as well as water privatization organizations like Food & Water Watch and Environment Maryland, of which I am a member.
I was not really shocked when I was asked to join the Water Challenge project at Food & Water Watch since I think I’m fairly removed from the core issues that our organization is advocating. Well, not really shocked, but in a way, kind of scared. Would I have the patience to continue with the project over a long period of time? Would I be able to make a difference as just once person? What I did know, was that this experience would be fun!
So I started researching ways to save on water and found this site that lists over 100 water conservation tips. I have decided that my journey will be to walk through every applicable tip and report my progress. I encourage you also to follow along.
The site‚ first method of saving water was this suggestion:
“When washing dishes by hand, don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.”
Well, this is easier said then done. I only have a single sink, not one of those fancy double sinks, so when I fill it up with water and add soap the water is usually soapy and after some time, dirty. I therefore have to leave the water running so that I can wash and rinse them.
So last night at 8:45, I went to Target and bought a big gray square dishpan. Wow, that thing was ugly, and quite expensive for what is essentially a bucket. I got it home filled it up with clean, hot water, filled my sink with clean, soapy water, and proceeded to do the dishes.
“Ok, not too bad. This seems to be working,” I thought. Then, about half-way through the process, the soap residue from the first half of my dishes completely contaminated my bucket of clean rinse water leaving a soapy layer of scum on my would-be clean dishes. Ok, so what to do now? I didn’t really want to waste the water in the rinse dishpan and I didn’t want to run any more water.
Sadly, I disposed of the soapy rinse water and filled the dishpan once again. By then, I had used two dishpans of water to finish my dishes. Since the dishpan holds about one gallon of water, I had expended two gallons of water. But since I usually run the tap for a good eight minutes or so while I am doing the dishes, which I have heard uses approximately 17 gallons of water, I figure I actually saved about 15 gallons of water!
So: not bad for week one. We will see how many other ways I can conserve water over the next few days, and I will report back on how I do!
-Jon Brown
Jon, did you use the recommended amount of dish soap, or quite a lot more? You can measure out a capful to give yourself a general idea how much you need. The label will probably suggest a healthy squirt which I find is too much. I think they just want to sell more detergent!
Hi Kathy,
When it comes to using the recommended dose for dish washing liquid, no I probably use a lot more. I have started to use the correct amount and doing dishes in smaller batches regularly also makes a difference as well.