Ways to limit amount of wastewater

[Andrew15_06]

Hey Everyone!

As tea lovers I'm sure we all make plenty of wastewater. Living in California and witnessing the affects of a crazy drought, I can't help but wonder how I can best reduce my waste of water and still enjoy my tea fully.

I'm going to start drinking rinses and limit the amounts given to my teapets. Most likely I will also slow down heating my teaware. Any other ideas by anyone? Any suggestions on how to better limit the amount of water that gets wasted?

Thanks!
Andrew

[Muadeeb]

Water your plants with it. That's what I do. But if you're trying to conserve water here in SoCal, I doubt your wastewater is the biggest waste. I live in San Diego and stopped watering my lawn last year and washing my car. Check every faucet for leaks, which can be a huge waste. Low flow showerheads, toilets with dual buttons, making sure your sprinklers aren't watering the sidewalk, things like that will make a much bigger impact on your water footprint than drinking your rinses.

[bellmont]

Water your plants with it. That's what I do. But if you're trying to conserve water here in SoCal, I doubt your wastewater is the biggest waste. I live in San Diego and stopped watering my lawn last year and washing my car. Check every faucet for leaks, which can be a huge waste. Low flow showerheads, toilets with dual buttons, making sure your sprinklers aren't watering the sidewalk, things like that will make a much bigger impact on your water footprint than drinking your rinses.

+1, all of this. I also water my plants. If you have funds/depending on your living situation, you could also consider investing in energy and water efficient washing machines and dishwashers. Or, if you don't have a dishwasher, examine your dishwashing habits (do you just let the facet run and water go down drain or do fill the sink first... etc...). Consider researching which fruits and vegetables (grown in the Central Valley) use the most water and try buying the one's which use less.

Low flow toilets are a must. Here's an interesting perspective:

Drinking your rinse might cause you to go urinate more often...so in fact you may be using more water (the thought being that you are flushing your toilet more). For some teas, I am thinking ones that are tightly rolled as well as some pu-erhs, the rinse is rather boring or undesirable in taste. Depending on your comfort level and how clean you keep your toilet in general, you could try flushing your toilet less if it's just urine.

If you are even more adventurous, and again if you have funds, installing a waterless urinal (I am assuming you are male-bodied):

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/for-the ... ome-132305

Or composting toilet could also be other options.

[Andrew15_06]

I appreciate both responses. Thanks!!

I already do my best to use less water in the house, hence the idea about limiting the amount of tea waste water I create. Using the waste water on plants is a must in my book so I will continue that. Any thoughts on plants that do better with tea waste water? I've killed some in the past.

The idea about my produce that could be contributing hadn't crossed my mind so I will be researching companies and farms.

As for the tea aspect, I mostly drink shou puerh and have had the rinses before, if it were tightly rolled oolong I'd probably be less inclined to stop rinsing. I am ever so curious how drinking the rinse may affect my bladder though, interesting perspective that I think has merit given that it puts mostly water in my system if it's the rinse. For now my approach will be to use less water for the rinse, stop serving my teapets so often, and not heat the outside of the pot. Perhaps that will limit my water a little more. Every drop counts right?

Again thank you both!
-Andrew

[ethan]

Objectively, some of our practice effects what we drink significantly; while some things we do ....

Pouring water over our pots & cups may make some difference, but you might skip that step. See how much difference it makes for you not to preheat teaware.

Isn't water poured over teaware for each infusion surely wasteful? Teaware stays warm between infusions at one session. I resisted commenting on this when a video was posted on teachat (w/ praise) of a respected vendor/member who made a huge project of preparing each infusion. At the time I was thinking that he made too big a deal out of preparation, > I was thinking of the wasted water. I did not want to sound nasty but now that I realize how much such practice contributes to drought problems....

[Andrew15_06]

Ethan,

There have been times myself that I have gone way overboard with all of the over pouring of water and it makes me sad to see how much I can contribute to water waste for my practice. Part of gung fu is presence. I feel if we are taking gung fu to heart and making it a practice, then isn't part of the practice to be mindful in our use of everything? Including overuse of water.

Pouring over tea constantly does seem and feel excessive, I will limit that as well. I appreciate the responses and ideas from everyone. In a sense it does suck to think about limiting how I brew tea when I know there are places like theme parks or Vegas that waste water all day long. But again it seems to me it is part of the practice to bring mindfulness in to play and how my actions play a part.

Thanks all!

[Chip]

Although I live at the base of a valley and water is extremely abundant, sadly the water is so hard that it is not usable for tea.

But I tend to recycle water used in the enjoyment of tea as much as possible. Nothing goes down the drain.

I preheat teaware and use this water for first steeps of sencha.

I only heat what I think I will need for 5-6 steeps. The remaining water in the kettle is used to rinse clean the kyusu and pitcher and cups. I do this over a water collector. Eventually, the leaves and water will make its way outside to the garden.

[mganz42]

I live in Colorado where it is also quite dry (not so much the last year or two though!) The air is so dry that I like to have a humidifier going - I just use most of my wastewater for that.
It's interesting, the "why does very good yancha have a bad bad day" topic http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20517 has had a few suggestions that very low humidity can contribute to a poor tea experience. Perhaps using the wastewater in a humidifier can help that extra water serve another useful purpose for making tea?

[Devoted135]

I don't tend to pour water over my pots (no tea bowls or tray... yet! ) but any water left in the kettle goes to topping up the cats' water bowl.

[debunix]

My wastewater from the tea tray goes into a bucket for watering my outdoor potted plants, along with some other recaptured water from the kitchen, including some of the water from rinsing teaware after use.

[jayinhk]

I would think limiting the length of your showers (even cutting them down by a minute or two) would have a much larger impact on water usage than gongfu cha! If I couldn't rinse shu pu erh twice, I probably wouldn't drink it. Fortunately I live in a part of the world where fresh water is abundant.

[debunix]

Yes, showering is a larger use than tea, but that does not mean we should be careless with water for tea, or careless with water for showers because agriculture uses so much more than showers.

[jayinhk]

Agree, but I consider gongfu cha worth the use of water (I discard maybe a quart a day?) and rinsing Chinese teas is really something you shouldn't slack on for health reasons.

[debunix]

Exactly because I reuse a lot of the wastewater from my tea preparation, I don't worry too much about using it to heat up a pot or cup or rinse some tea. The reuse is my compromise.

[AT333]

I don't think we waste a lot of water during tea ceremony. A quick shower will take up a week's worth of tea ceremony water. I recycle my tea ceremony wastewater often by watering the plants. The plants seems to enjoy the tea waste water by the look of its' healtea, err...healthy growth