Green Living by Janet Marchant: Greening Your Water Use

All of these sunny days we've been having lately in Alameda are great for solar power enthusiasts, but not so good for our water supply. With California facing what could be its worst drought in history this year, even Alameda could be affected.

Normally, we count on a lot of water falling out of the sky as the rain that keeps our Kentucky bluegrass thriving, or trickling down to us in the form of melted snow from the mountains, but there just hasn't been much rain or snow this winter. That got me to thinking; if we can't get the water we need from rain or snow, where else could we get it? The answer is so obvious, I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. Water doesn't just come out of our faucets—it also comes out of bottles!

Instead of draining our precious reservoirs by turning on the faucet to get a drink of water, you can just open a bottle. Sure, it might take a little extra effort to twist that cap off, but that's a small price to pay if you like water with bubbles in it. Those carbon dioxide bubbles are also good for powering away dirt. I've found that bottled water is great for washing dishes, or the car, or the dog, and for tough laundry stains, you can't beat a washer tub full of club soda!

You might think that making this change in your already modest water use would just be a drop in the bucket, environmentally speaking, but there is another advantage to using bottled water for everything from bathing to floor-mopping. The plastic bottles that water comes in are recyclable. In fact, you can also recycle water bottles that are made out of glass. We all know that recycling is good for the planet, so the more bottles of water you use up, the better our planet will be. And with all of these tips for using bottled water at your disposal, you'll be amazed how quickly you can fill up your recycling bin!