Kitchen

How much water do we use in the kitchen?

About 10 per cent of total household water consumption is used for cooking, cleaning, washing or drinking.

• Wash your vegetables in a container, not under running water.
• When boiling vegetables, use just enough water to cover them and keep the lid on the saucepan. Your vegetables will boil quicker and maintain precious vitamins in the food.
• Don’t rinse dishes under a running tap. If you have two sinks, fill the second one with rinsing water. If you have only one sink, stack washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them with a pan of hot water.
• Garbage-disposal units use about 6 litres of water per day. Put suitable food scraps into a composter or worm farm rather than down the kitchen sink.
• To avoid wasting drinking water from a running tap, collect it in a bottle or jug and store it in the fridge until it is cool enough to drink.

Dishwasher tips

Before buying a new dishwasher, check the manufacturer’s water efficiency labels. Australia’s Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) scheme allows consumers to compare the water efficiency of different products using a star rating system. By buying more water efficient products you can save money on water and electricity bills and help the environment!

• Washing your dishes using a modern 6-star WELS rated efficient dishwasher is usually more water efficient than washing by hand.
• Scrape rather than rinse your dishes before putting them into the dishwasher.
• Only use the dishwasher when you have a full load.
• Use the rinse-hold setting on the dishwasher, if it has one, rather than rinsing dishes under the tap.

Waiting for the hot water to come through?

• Catch running water while waiting for it to warm up. Use it to water plants, rinse dishes, or wash fruit and vegetables
• Insulate hot water pipes. This avoids wasting water while waiting for hot water to flow through and saves energy
• Make sure your hot water system thermostat is not set too high. Adding cold water to cool very hot water is wasteful
• Newer hot water systems allow you to specify the temperature without adding cold water
• Install a plumbing device that allows the cold water to be recirculated until it warms up.