The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers. This week’s tip was written by Nika Nazarizadeh.
While the recent abundance of rain in the past few weeks has been a welcome respite to our prolonged drought, it raises the question of whether we can do more to capture and reuse rainfall to help our environment. It turns out, yes, there’s a plethora of ways to do so.
Catching water in order to reuse it can be as simple as placing an empty garbage can to collect rainwater running off the top of the roof or from any other area that collects a large amount of rainfall.
The uses for captured rainfall are nearly endless. Think of it as you would hose water. You can reuse rainwater to clean your car, garden equipment or any vehicle/equipment that you might otherwise wash with your hose.
Another use is in your garden. Aside from the obvious watering of plants, rainwater can be used as an excellent source to clean vegetables (especially root vegetables) straight out of the garden. Composting is another great use in the garden. Water is essential for composting, and there’s no rule that says this water can’t be rainwater.
As washing clothes accounts for 22% of indoor water use, any way to reduce water used in the process is a great help. So why not rainwater?
Washing clothes with pure rainwater works great, but if you desire treated water for your clothes, consider learning how to treat rainwater for washing, showering and even bathing. SFGate has some excellent tips on how to flip untreated rainwater into treated rainwater that you can check out at homeguides.sfgate.com/treat-rainwater-shower-103313.html.
The next time you sit in your cozy home and watch the beautiful Palisades rain, plan to do your part to reduce water use by recycling your rainwater.
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