It’s World Water Day on Sunday so this week’s Recycle This is water themed.

Following on from Monday’s reuses for bath/shower water and Wednesday’s, hot, clean water, I thought we’d feature cooking water today – the stuff leftover after boiling vegetables or pasta etc.

Like with the freshly boiled water from Wednesday, it seems a waste of power to just power it down the drain when we’re done.

With pasta or potatoes, the water is often starchy and with veg such as broccoli, the water can be “discoloured” from the veg itself – so not really suitable for washing stuff.

So is there anything that can be done with it? I know some people use veg water as the liquid when making stock but what else?

It’s World Water Day on Sunday so this week’s Recycle This is water themed.

Following on from Monday’s post on reusing bath water or water from a shower, I thought it would be good to get some reuses for misc CLEAN hot water.

As good citizens of the world, we only try to heat as much water as we need when we use the kettle but sometimes someone changes their mind over a cup of tea or we just simple misjudge how small a container is, and there is freshly boiled clean water leftover. It would be a waste of both power and water to just let it cool again then tip it away.

I also had sinusitis for most of last year and the best way to get temporary relief was to steam open my block cavities with a bowl of boiling water and a towel over my head. The water was always still super hot when I was done so again, it was a shame to just throw it down the drain.

I mostly use our leftover hot water for pre-washing pans or other cleaning tasks around the kitchen – at the very least, it gets swooshed down the dish-draining rack on its way to the plughole.

Away from the kitchen, I have half a memory of very hot water in a spray can being good for getting rid of aphids or something. And crafters could use it for hand felting small objects like felt balls.

Any other suggestions to make the most of it?

Ok, that sounds like a bit of a no-brainer but let’s elaborate on it a bit:

What’s greener a bath – which allows the water to be recycled on the garden or into a grey water system – or a shower where the water just goes down the drain?

How about if the bath water is heated in a gas boiler and the shower is electric?

(photo by Bharat Talreja, c/o sxc.hu)