Learn more about ENERGY STAR water- and energy-efficient dishwashers.

Scrape food from dishes into the trash rather than down the sink to lighten the burden on wastewater treatment plants. Newer dishwashers don’t even require pre-rinsing!

Use the garbage disposal less and the garbage more.  Or even better, compost those scraps.

Learn more about kitchen composting.

When you wash dishes by hand, don’t let the water run the whole time. Just use a little water to get your sponge soapy and wet and then turn off the faucet until you’re ready to rinse a bunch of dishes at once. Better yet, plug the sink or get a tub to wash dishes in so you don’t need to let the water run.

Drinking Water

Keep a bottle or pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap to cool it each time you want a drink.

Choose tap water over bottled – it takes about 1.5 gallons of water to manufacture a single plastic bottle, and plastic bottles are always made from new plastic material.

For myself and people of my generation, cooking represents