Don't spend money like water, spend water like money
The way you use it or waste it, water is in your hands...
To save water...
Reduce
- Determine the minimum volume of water you need. Compare your performance to others and make improvements where possible.
- Fix dripping taps and leaking pipes – a dripping tap wastes more than $100 a year.
- Install water saving accessories around your business, contact your local water authority for ideas.
- Compare water usage on volume per unit production, not per unit time (for example, use litres/bottle of soda, not litres/minute).
- Avoid using water wherever possible – use a dry technique such as a broom, vacuum cleaner or compressed air jet.
- Use a dry method as a materials conveyor instead of water.
- Use counter flow rinsing with as many rinse stages as possible, as most contaminants are removed in the first rinse. Two short rinse stages are much more water efficient than one long one.
- Minimise contaminant 'drag out' to additional rinse stages by optimising your counter flow rinse system.
Reuse
- Determine the cheapest way to treat wastewater. It may be more profitable to treat the water for reuse rather than disposal.
- Investigate the possibility of rainwater harvesting for use as boiler feed or cooling tower makeup. This can be a cost effective way of reducing water related costs such as reducing the size of drainage systems in new structures.
- Account for all losses involved in the disposal of water. Heat, chemicals, labour and plant capacity may also be thrown away.
- Consider using wastewater for lower grade uses where water quality does not have to be so high (check, however, that it does not compromise product quality).
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