water conservation
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Starbucks addresses water wastage following tabloid indictment
As John Edwards always said, never underestimate the power of a tabloid. Following the revelation in British rag-mag The Sun that constantly running dipper wells waste a humongous amount of water, a Starbucks spokesperson confirms, “Stores will be instructed to switch off the dipper well tap and will wash spoons after use.” And the plot […]
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Nestle flexes its muscles at Miami water utility
For months, the bottled-water industry has been losing its grip over people’s pocketbooks. Consumers are realizing that buying purified tap water at pumped-up prices, packaged in little plastic bottles, makes zero sense in economic, ecological, or health terms. Now the industry appears to be losing its grip on reality. From the Miami Herald: In the […]
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California prison system introduces conservation measures
Woe to California inmates whose lunches don’t agree with them: As part of a conservation program in the state-prison system, at least one prison has introduced a water-saving measure that makes toilets temporarily unflushable if they’re flushed three times in five minutes. As for what else the prisons are doo-ing: A partnership with the state’s […]
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Umbra on dishwashing and droughts
Dear Umbra, I am trying to be so much more green than I used to be, so your column has helped me with the nagging questions. Now I wonder about living in a drought-stricken state with water restrictions and bulging landfills. Saturday I had a wedding shower for a dear niece and invited many women […]
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Umbra on reusing bath water
Hi Umbra, My new (to me) house has a somewhat larger than standard bathtub with jets. I rarely have time for a bath, but last night took the opportunity to indulge. I had a nice soak, in water heated by solar energy, but then I had a tubful — perhaps 50 gallons? — of relatively […]
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Umbra on water conservation
Dear Umbra, Your general drift has been to get us to focus on the big stuff instead of the little paper-or-plastic issues. So what’s the big picture of household water use and overuse? I have a clothes washer and a dishwasher, I wash dishes in the sink, I take showers and flush every time I […]
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Shouldering the burden of our environmental impact
Consider this: Friends of mine tell me that their daughter will only eat meat if she knows the name of the animal that died to produce it. She’ll eat the pork roast from pigs grown on our farm — but not the anonymous bacon offered up in the college dining hall. Adherence to this one […]
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Flush With Success
Canadian plumbing supply stores near the U.S. border are doing a bustling business thanks to Americans who want old-fashioned 3.5-gallon-capacity toilets instead of the 1.6-gallon low-flush models required in the U.S. since 1994. Some political conservatives have been driving the trend, arguing that 1.6 gallons often aren’t enough to do the job and that the […]
