Conserving freshwater that isn’t contaminated with something ugly is a major concern for most cities. Even in places where the municipal water supply is reused many times before discharge into the larger environment, the number of passes through our cities and our selves increases the level of contamination.
Conserving water decreases the amount of energy spent on pumping. It also decreases the reliance upon rivers, streams and lakes. Such bodies of water can be pumped too low for already stressed animal populations to survive the other impacts of pollution – notably algal blooms in estuaries.
Since much of a household’s water budget is spent on laundry, it makes sense to address this water “sink” as the “source” becomes more erratic due to climate change. Water service is also quite costly. Since the 1970s, some washing machines have been designed to use a fraction of the wash water by recycling gray-water from one load to another and using fresh rinse water.
