Recycled Water

by Yvette Victorino
(MA, United States)

Did you know that all clouds are made up of tiny water droplets and ice crystals? Basically, clouds are made of water, and they are the medium by which water returns to the earth, in the forms of rain, snow, or hail.

Water can change from a vapor, to a liquid, to a solid, and back again. An apparent cycle occurs, but because this is repeated over and over, I call it recycled water.

Did you also know that there is no new water upon the earth? That is to say, the earth recycles the same water over and over again; in a system we call weather.

An idea occurred to me about recycling our water at home, and I will show you how.

How often have we boiled potatoes in water, or boiled some pasta in water, then no sooner do we finish, we dump the water down a drain in the kitchen; and think no more about it? A much better use would be to recycle the water, by allowing the water to cool down to room temperature, and then use the same pot of water to restore it to the garden soil.

If you find this to be to cumbersome, why not collect the water in a barrel, then use the water in the future to water the garden?

The idea is not a new one, actually many people use rain barrels outside to collect rain water. Rain water is the best method to use as a natural source, to decrease the use of water consumption, saving and storing water for future use in a container made for storage.

My thought was to reuse the water we have at home, to find a way of recycling the water used for our basic needs.

How often do we hose down something, and never think of collecting the water and recycling it? Even if the water had dirt in it, this same water could still be restored to the soil. Obviously, we want to be very careful what is allowed in the water, anything with toxic chemicals should never be used or restored.

But what about bath water? Couldn’t that same eight to twelve gallons of water be recycled? I would say of course, depending upon how much work you would like to do hauling it; and pouring it into a rain barrel. The point is, that in nature water recycles, and in our homes it can also be recycled as well.

It depends upon us to be good stewards of what is given to us, remembering that we have limited resources. I would desire to use every available means to live a healthier life, and to be less wasteful. If we can compost our food scraps, why not recycle our water?