Kitchen

The kitchen is a major consumer of water in the home

Here we use around 10% of total household water consumption for cooking, cleaning, washing or drinking.

• Wash your vegetables in a container, not under running water.
• Remove food scraps by scraping into compost or a bin.
• 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.
• 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.
• When you clean your fish tank, use the ‘old’ nitrogen and phosphorous-rich water on your plants.
• When washing dishes by hand, use washing-up liquid sparingly.

Dishwasher tips

• The dishwasher is the highest consumer of water in the kitchen. Installing a water efficient model will save you not only water but also money. Before purchasing a new dishwasher, check the appliance for a WELS (National Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards scheme) label. The WELS scheme labels products for water efficiency - the more stars, the more water efficient the product.
• 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 whilst 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.
• New 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.

Saving water in the kitchen