Water Conservation

[flinchlock]

What water conservation stuff do you do?

• Capture the shower water to recycle (especially waiting for hot temperature) for rinsing and flushing
• Shower using the wet and rinse technique (we call that a "spit bath")
• Do not run water while brushing teeth
• Run water slowly to stop waste
• Reuse cooked pasta water for another dish

Mike

 

[EdoHart]

Assuming you mean while camping...

What ever water isn't used for morning coffee goes toward cleaning dishes. It can sit in the coffee pot all day long if necessary.

I don't have a shower, so sponge baths have to suffice.

The easiest way for me to get water out of the tank is to use the drain valve. I usually fill up a canteen or two, then use that to...
-fill my mouth with water before brushing my teeth.
-rinse the tooth brush
-rinse/clean dishes once the coffee pot is empty

When cleaning/rinsing dishes, I usually start with cups, do the flatware in the cups, poor the water into bowls and finally onto the plates. Note, soapy water goes a long way with this technique, but I add fresh rinse water as I go down the line.

I never thought of reusing pasta water, but I have reused vegetable water.

 

[flinchlock]

Saving coffee water...

We have a "Melitta Manual Coffeemaker" (search Amazon.com) we use at home in the microwave with a permanent "gold" filter.

But, for camping, we only take the coffee funnel and use "Coffee Filters No 6" (search Amazon.com) instead of the permanent filter. We save (not waste) lots of water since we just pitch the paper filter. We have also used paper towels to filter with when *I* forgot the paper filters. The paper towels are not as fast as the real coffee filters... I am guessing the paper towel is way too soft and sticks to the coffee funnel too tight to allow the coffee to run down the filter sides.

Saving Flush water...

http://www.campmor.com/images/tents/86702.jpg

Mike

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I'll start conserving water when they stop building tract homes and malls.

 

[b team]

no water for brushing teeth

paper plates. clean knife and spork in my mouth

wet towel "showers" and keep hair real short so only need a cup to wash it.

10 gallons will go a long way.

 

[simimike]

I just try to be water aware. But mostly I avoid drinking any water. I've heard things about what fish do in water. Horrible things that I can't write about in a family forum.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[flinchlock]

No-Rinse Laboratories and they have DOG products.

Mike

 

[Pete D]

I'm with B Team -- Lick utensils really clean -- Eat from cooking containers or paper plates -- Use yesterday's shirt to take sponge/spit bath (aka helmet bath in military) -- Have a manual water pump, not electric, so water isn't wasted (and isn't filling gray tank) -- Use campground facilities whenever possible.

Folks who insist on shower should do Navy Shower; wet down, shut water off, soap up, rinse.

BTW, I'm not saving water for malls or developments, I'm saving it so I don't need to carry so much or need to dispose of it.

 

[chnlisle]

As Brian will attest, here in the desert water is an issue. How else are they going to keep building new golf course communities? One seems to spring up in AZ every 20 or 30 seconds. Having said that I just filled my new brand new inground pool & spa and swam in it last night. I had several beers in honor of Mike and to conserve water.

Mike, not just fishes.

 

[Pete D]

Part of the problem in the West is Easterners moving in and wanting lawns because a good lawn is the mark of a good homeowner...

When one stops to think about it, lawns are really sort of an insane blight on the US. We pour all sorts of poisons and fertilizers on them, use a lot of resources on the machinery to care for them (including fuel and oil, to say nothing of manufacturing equipment) and then we have to dispose of the cuttings...

The main spring at Crystal River Florida used to be a large hole several hundred feet across and about 35 feet deep, clear enough to see across, but inland developments apparently created so much fertilizer run-off that the water is now quite cloudy.

 

[chnlisle]

Pete, You got that dead on. Our acre is all natural. Anything that was planted that isnt drought resistant is now gone and replaced with native vegitation. I have neighbors with lawns and it amazes me to see the sprinklers running when its 100+. They are retired mid-westerners or easterners. We went to xerographic land scaping when we were in CA at the beach as well.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

You guys got me thinking-- We can re-use our grey water to flush our porta-potty.



erm, I wonder what we'll use the black water from the porta-potty for?

 

[Pete D]

Some FullTime boondockers (aka flatspotters) do use the gray for flushing the potty. I dunno what can be done with blackwater, however, unless one takes it home to use for fertilizer in a rice paddy or something like that (might take a couple of generations to build up the necessary immunities... ).