The wasteful toilet flush

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

No, I am not taking the proverbial though about it we have to talk, in a way.

The primary use of water in many Western homes is flushing the toilet and it is reckoned that in the US 18.5 gallons (US gallons not Imperial gallons) are used per person per day, which equates, for the US, in US terms again, 5.7 billion US-gallons of clean drinking water going down the drain, literally wasted.

There is an old saying that goes: “If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down” and that could be a start to save water in this department. If your water usage is metered and you pay according to how much water you and your family use then thinking along those lines not only saves clean drinking water from being wasted but also stops you flushing money down the drain, literally.

Aside from that there is another option or one could even say two. If you have a garden then you do not want to waste this fantastic source of nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. that you tend to flush away. You want to use it beneficially for your plants. Saves too in the garden fertilizer department.

This is, if you have a garden, have the males of your family pee on the compost heap or, alternatively, have them pee into a plastic bottle, such as one of those that you buy your milk in, and then, every evening or such, empty this onto the compost heap. It acts as a compost agitator – you see, something else you don't have to buy then – and (one) helps to speed up the composting process and (two) makes a very nutrient rich compost.

If you don't have a garden then still do the bottle thing and only once a day flush the contents of the bottles (all of them together). That way you only flush once. But, if possible, urine should be utilized in the garden, ideally as a compost agitator. While it is a “plant food” it should never be applied to plants directly nor the soil around them even, as it will burn plants and roots when still “fresh”.

© 2017

Saving water

Saving water, during a drought and in general

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

“Don't rush to flush if it's only a pee” was the water saving eco-advice given in a booklet produced by the office of the Mayor of London under Ken Livingstone and this is a good advice.

Using less water in our homes (and elsewhere) is not only good environmental practice, it also makes financial sense, especially if you are on a water meter. If you are not than, in financial terms, there is no benefit but in the long run you too will benefit as there remains enough water to go round.

Once again we have seen how our water resources are stretched, especially in the South, South East and East of England where several dry winters in a row have given us another, though by now rather wet, drought and hosepipe bans are in place and the there was the threat, almost, of also other restrictions.

How a country such as Britain where it rains a great deal though, as said, the last couple of winters have been rather dry, bar some snow the year before last and the one before, ends up having water shortages confuses most of our European neighbors. The problem is that unlike most of the Britain does not have a national water grid and makes every excuse under the sun for not putting one in place.

The other problem, especially for the Southern Counties and the Home Counties, is that there are simply too many people living there and too much industry situated there; both of which impacts seriously on the water resources.

Furthermore the water infrastructure is so old, in many places dating from the Victorian era, with little to no investment having been made into it for at least three quarters of a decade. Pipes are so porous that one could almost say that they appear to be resembling a sieve in many places and the water companies seem to be incapable or unwilling to actually get on top of that problem and plug the leaks.

When it comes to saving water, and not only the householders need to think about that; business need to also, there are a number of things that can be done and using the flush on the toilet only when needed is but one.

When it comes to using water a home it is a case “when not necessary don't run the tap” also and that means especially when brushing your teeth. Way too many people – and the reason for this beats me – leave the tap running when cleaning their teeth. Use a beaker as we always did and I still do to rinse. Much better anyway than sticking your head under the tap.

Take a four-minute shower instead of a bath. That saves a great deal of water especially considering how many gallons of pure clean water is being used with each and every bath.

Get a rainwater butt – or more than one – for use in the garden. Rainwater is also much better for use with your plants, be those flowers or vegetables, than is tap water. The chlorine is what cause the problem of leaf burn when watering is done during the day (though watering during the day when the sun is high is not a good idea as the water will evaporate) as chlorine is, basically, a salt.

More water savings could be achieved if you use gray water in the garden, for instance, or for the flushing of your lavatory. Gray water is that kind of water that you have been using for washing your hands, during a shower and such. With the right tools it can be captured and used another time. The only gray water I would not suggest using is the one from washing the dishes as that may, aside from detergent which would not be all that good for watering plants, grease which would cause a problem also when used for flushing the lavatory.

Gray water use requires a little forethought and diverters where certain types of water are used for specific applications, such as the water from your washing machine for use only to flush the lavatory and not to go for watering the garden, for instance.

Those are but a few suggestions that could save you money, if your water use is metered and you pay according to that, and which, and that is most important, can help conserve precious water resources.

© 2012

Starbucks wastes millions of liters of water a day

Coffee giant's running-tap policy shows that they are not as green as they like to lead the world to believe; in fact, less than green...

by Michael Smith

We simply must not get blinded by greenwash. Many companies engage in that, including companies that were supposedly set up with green and ethical views.

An investigation by the British “newspaper” The Sun revealed that over 23.4m litres of water are poured down the drains of 10,000 outlets worldwide due to a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop.

This is enough daily water for the entire population of Namibia in Africa of two million, which has severe droughts. Or it is to fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes.
A single Starbucks tap left running for just over three minutes wastes the amount of water one African needs to survive for a day in drought conditions. Water waste like that is not just rather unfriendly to the environment it, in fact, borders on the criminal.

Each Starbucks has a cold tap behind the counter that runs into a sink known as a "dipper well", which is used to wash utensils.

Under the company's health and safety rules, staff are banned from turning the water off because management claim that a constant flow of water prevents germs breeding in taps.

Water companies joined green activists in criticising the firm for harming the environment and wasting a vital natural resource. Experts said leaving taps running for hygiene reasons was "nonsense".

Starbucks in the UK is wasting an estimated 1.63m litres a day – enough to supply Matlock village in Derbyshire with water. The taps of those “dipper wells” left on, as said, for all the time that the shops are open, and that is about for an average of 13 hours daily, and the water is not being recycled.

This is an absolutely astonishing waste of water, especially for a company which prides itself on its green credentials. Maybe we, the consumers, should go and tell Starbaucks what we think of their not so green credentials by voting with our feet.

Speaking to staff at Starbucks outlets around the world, the Sun found that many did not use the running tap or even know what it was for.

This is not the first time the Seattle-based firm has come under fire over its social and environmental credentials. In 2006, the Guardian reported how the US coffee giant has used its muscle to block an attempt by Ethiopia's farmers to copyright their most famous coffee bean types, denying them potential earnings of up to £47m a year.

As a result, Starbucks negotiated an agreement with the Ethiopian government to give the country more ownership and a better price for its coffee beans.

© M Smith (Veshengro), October 2008
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At least half of all food produced worldwide is wasted

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Huge amounts of food are wasted after production. It is being discarded in processing, destroyed and hence discarded during transport, at supermarkets and in restaurant and domestic kitchens. This wasted food is, obviously, also wasted water as finds a policy brief released on August 22, 2008 at World Water Week in Stockholm.

The brief written and compiled by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute shows that the current food crisis is less a crisis of production than a crisis of waste. Tossing food away is like leaving the tap running, the authors say.

"More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem - many are hungry, while at the same time many overeat," the brief states. But, it says, "we are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."

What we must not forget also is that there is, I am sure, still the old food mountain and the stupidity, though no longer as publicly reported as it once was, of actually forcing farmers to dump food stuffs during either a glut or also because it is not the right shape and size or has blemishes.

"As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted," says Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at IWMI. "Curbing these losses and improving water productivity provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business, ecosystems, and the global hungry."

"An effective water-saving strategy requires that minimizing food wastage is firmly placed on the political agenda," she said.

In the United States, for instance, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some US$48.3 billion, is thrown away. "That's like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion liters of water into the garbage can - enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people," says the report.

The policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain," calls on governments to reduce by half, by 2025, the amount of food that is wasted after it is grown and outlines attainable steps for this be achieved.

"Unless we change our practices, water will be a key constraint to food production in the future," said Dr. Pasquale Steduto of FAO.

Water losses accumulate as food is wasted before and after it reaches the consumer.

In poorer countries, so the research found, a majority of uneaten food is lost before it even has a chance to be consumed. Depending on the crop, an estimated 15 to 35 percent of food may be lost in the field, while another 10 to15 percent is discarded during processing, transport and storage.

In richer countries, while production may be more efficient waste is by far greater, so states the report. "People toss the food they buy and all the resources used to grow, ship and produce the food along with it."

As this wasted food rots in landfills it generates methane, a gas that causes climate change and is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

With proper municipal composting facilities, however, this food waste would not even need to go into landfill and if we would permit the use of swill again, properly controlled and monitored, for the feeding of pigs then most of that food waste would be turned into calories and protein.

World Water Week was hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute, a policy institute that contributes to international efforts to combat the world's escalating water crisis.

We must consider the one fact too in this wasted food, as it has been stated, and that is the wasted water, in the form of irrigation (and others), and this when water resources are getting – or could be getting – scarcer due to changes in climate and in rainfall patters.

As someone once said: the next war(s) will not be fought over territory but over access to water resources; a case that always was thus in countries such as Arabia, and such.

Water wars and skirmishes have been about in those places, as well as in other countries, throughout the ages. In future, however, it may actually not be a case of just a clan against another or a rancher against another one; it could indeed be one country against another over the perceived interference with water supply and such.

Whether or not any difference can be made by us in the realm of water resource management by not wasting food, with the exception of the fact that the less food is wastes the less there has to be grown and hence less water being used for watering the plants, does not matter too much either; not wasting food on its own should be enough incentive.

Further savings in the water department could be made if the developed world at least – for I know that the quality of the municipal water and other supplies in some countries out of that realm are dubious – would stop the wasteful practice of drinking bottled water. While a number of that stuff is tap water, which may or not have been filtered and such, there are still many brands that use well and spring water, and such extraction has a bad effect on the water table and the general natural water supply.

So, time we stopped wasting food and water...

© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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