Use Water From a Dishpan to Flush a Toilet or Water Something - PEP BB greywillow.sand.dishpan

I think my dishpan doesn’t comfortably hold more than a couple gallons, so I’m posting 3 smaller batches to add up to the 3 gallons. I actually have been emptying the dishpan water into growies every other day for the last 3 weeks. So I’ve done this with nearly 20 gallons so far.

I’ve been using non other than Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap. https://shop.drbronner.com/products/peppermint-pure-castile-liquid-soap

I’ve been putting soap and water in a small mister bottle and I’m happy with how that’s working. I just spray the dirty dishes and only using running water for rinsing.

Oh, and the growies in these photos are pepper seed sprouts, garlic sprouts and carrots.

I did a lot of smaller dishes in the pan. That color is almost entirely from hot cocoa, making me a bit anxious about drinking any more in the future. Lol.

The dirty dishpan water from the dishes can be used to flush the toilet. The dishwasher does not flush the toilet with the dirty water post-cycle. Another reason to do dishes by hand: stacks functions.

Sage advice from my partner: always keep a bucket in your kitchen.

The soap is Castille Soap from Churruka. La Jaboneria de Churruka It's made from olive oil, so it's biodegradable. Thanks for the reminder to add this bit!

For this BB I have used water from 2 different dish washings to water 2 different trees. The bowl holds 2 gallons, for a total of 4 gallons. I use the Unscented Company Dish Soap.

Could water from washing garden veggies, rather than dishes, be used for this bb? No soap of any kind involved.

(I just picked, washed and distributed to neighbors, about 5 gallon buckets of lettuce and a couple gallons of chard, and the wash water went on the cherry tree).

Also posted in my PEP/Homesteading Diary.
permies.com/p/1277697
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The primary purpose of dish soap is as a de-greaser. Since I wasn't de-greasing anything, no dishsoap was used. Just good old fashioned elbow'grease' here. I hope that's okay.
4.73 L is 1.25 Gallons.

If that is the case I would like to formally request a change to the requirements then. I'm not fond of wasting resources, & since dish soap's primary purpose is as a de-greaser, & I wasn't de-greasing anything, using dish soap would be wasteful & counter to permaculture values, as I understand it. Maybe the requirements can say something like 'If dish soap is used, a picture & link to the verifiable biodegradeable dish soap is needed'. Staff thoughts? If I have to waste some dish soap to qualify, I'll do it.

B Lunaress wrote: I'm not fond of wasting resources, & since dish soap's primary purpose is as a de-greaser, & I wasn't de-greasing anything, using dish soap would be wasteful & counter to permaculture values, as I understand it.

Maybe you should re-do the BB when you DO have something that needs de-greasing. What do you use for washing greasy things at the moment?

Burra Maluca wrote:

B Lunaress wrote: I'm not fond of wasting resources, & since dish soap's primary purpose is as a de-greaser, & I wasn't de-greasing anything, using dish soap would be wasteful & counter to permaculture values, as I understand it.

Maybe you should re-do the BB when you DO have something that needs de-greasing. What do you use for washing greasy things at the moment?

I don't really eat greasy food often (greasy food tends to cause me gastrointestinal issues), so I don't really run into the issue of what to use; though I did learn recently that hardwood ash mixes with grease & fat to form a basic soap; & a BB recently taught me that I can wipe most of the grease off with paper to use later as a fire starter, & use hot water for the last bit. I'm really learning a lot from doing these BB's.
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I took a look at what my current flatmates use. Great Value brand Ultra Dishwashing Liquid, & Dawn Ultra brand Antibacterial Hand Soap. Neither have a biodegradeable label on them, & looking online I can't seem to find anything that says these specific dish soaps are biodegradeable (is there a site that checks what dish soaps are biodegradeable?).
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If this is the ruling, then I guess I'll just have to go buy some biodegradeable dish soap, & wait until a housemate greases up a dish. Such is life. I can do other BB's in the mean time, I suppose. Thanks for taking a look.

Burra Maluca wrote:

B Lunaress wrote: I'm not fond of wasting resources, & since dish soap's primary purpose is as a de-greaser, & I wasn't de-greasing anything, using dish soap would be wasteful & counter to permaculture values, as I understand it.

Maybe you should re-do the BB when you DO have something that needs de-greasing. What do you use for washing greasy things at the moment?

From the perspective of someone interested in using skip to find people to hire, about 50% of the value is the person showing they can read and follow the instructions.

Paul had a good post somewhere about edge cases.