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Reduce Water Usage When Cooking

Reduce Water Usage When Cooking

Updated 1 January 2020 04:50 PM

With 22% of all household water used in the kitchen, there is plenty of opportunity to save around half of it



  1. Steam vegetables, don’t boil them. Not only does steaming use much less water but also means that not as many nutrients are lost.
  2. Use a minimum of cooking water in order to retain nutrients and save on cooking time. 
  3. Pasta and vegetables need much less water than the package instructs, just stir frequently. 
  4. Refrain from rinsing vegetables, instead fill a bowl with water. This water can then be used on your garden. 
  5. When defrosting foods, don’t run the tap over the food, instead plan ahead and leave the food in the fridge. Alternatively use the microwave.
  6. When using saucepans, use the lid to cover the food. This will reduce the amount of cooking time required and the amount of evaporation lost.
  7. After boiling foods in the saucepan, leave the water to cool before reusing it to water your garden.
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Science Notes

A kitchen tap will generally use up to 20 litres a minute. Use a water saving tap attachment, such as a low-flow tap head aerator to reduce water usage. These water saving devices work by restricting the water flow from the tap, using up to half the amount of water. Even though the amount of water is lessened, the device still maintains good water pressure.

Related Tip

Keep a herb garden near your kitchen so that you can reuse your kitchen grey water. This way you can keep your plants growing and healthy and reduce the amount of water wastage.

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