Dish water disposal for vans

[uncagingmyspirit]

When you don't have a grey tank such as an RVs, what do you do with your dish water that you clean dishes in?

Do you dump the water around trees, bushes, grass, dig a hole, street gutters, dumpsters, keep it in a bucket for the sun to evaporate or do people just use paper plates/bowls for RTR and throw them away?

I am specifically asking because I would like to know what to do with my dish water when I'm out at RTR in the middle of the desert around other RVs, vans etc

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[Moxadox]

First, I use paper towels to get all the food waste off the dishes. That's what attracts animals. The paper towels then either get used to start a cooking fire, or they go into the trash. Next, dishes get washed in a tiny amount of water. Many use a spray bottle with vinegar to wash dishes. Any small amount of grey water can be used to put out cooking fires or deposited under a bush.



The Dire Wolfess

 

[lenny flank]

There have been a billion threads about this already. Searching will bring up more discussion than you'd ever want to read through.

I do the ole backpacker thing: I dump my greywater in a sandy area not near water, so it can be filtered on the way down to the water table. But I never have more than a half-gallon of greywater at a time.

(Keep in mind that even biodegradable soap is toxic to aquatic life, so don't use or dump near water.)

The rules vary from place to place though, so follow the rules.

 

[cyndi]

Recently, I was told that I should be dumping water on rocks, not on plants or in root beds. In the desert, dumping on plants or in root beds may force the plant into an early bloom, disrupting its natural cycle

 

[uncagingmyspirit]

Recently, I was told that I should be dumping water on rocks, not on plants or in root beds. In the desert, dumping on plants or in root beds may force the plant into an early bloom, disrupting its natural cycle

Thank you. That's the kind of information I was looking for.

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[MrNoodly]

In the desert, dumping on plants or in root beds may force the plant into an early bloom, disrupting its natural cycle

I know it's perfectly natural for ocotillos to bloom several times a year, whenever there's enough water. That might be true for other desert plants. Ocotillos were blooming last week in parts of California and Arizona because of a day of light rain. The hummingbirds were happy.

In my opinion, if someone is tossing enough dishwater to start a plant blooming then they're using way too much water. We've been conditioned to think we need a big sink of sudsy water and another sink of rinse water (or a dishwasher load of water) to get dishes clean. We don't. I can clean a pan/pot, plate/bowl, and utensils with a quarter cup or less—without soap.

 

[bullfrog]

I generally spread out and stake by turning up the edges a cheap 5' x 7' Harbor Freight free tarp a good ways away from camp if I have more than a gallon of gray water to deal with (like showers) and let it evaporate then after it has been used fold it in on itself and store till it gets to dirty to deal with then put it in the trash.

 

[uncagingmyspirit]

Ocotillos were blooming last week in parts of California and Arizona because of a day of light rain. The hummingbirds were happy.

The desert was the information I was specifically looking for. So it seems like rocks is the best idea for the desert. When I'm camping in a forest or mountains, I dump the water away from the river, like a dry bed of pine needles or just a pile of dirt. When I'm urban, I dump the water around a tree or bush unless it's let's too dirty(food particles); then I dump it in the street away from other RVs and vandwellers.

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[highdesertranger]

in some places it's perfectly legal to dump your grey water, in other places it's not. I would be very surprised if the BLM would say it's ok in the Quartzsite area because of the shear number of snow birds and visitors this time of year. it's going to be a little difficult to find out specifics at the moment because of the shut down. so in other words I don't know what to tell you. highdesertranger

 

[uncagingmyspirit]

I would be very surprised if the BLM would say it's ok in the Quartzsite area because of the shear number of snow birds and visitors this time of year.

I'm going to play it safe and just use paper plates and bowls for RTR. Paper towels to wipe down and vinegar and water for cleaning.

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[B and C]

I'm going to play it safe and just use paper plates and bowls for RTR. Paper towels to wipe down and vinegar and water for cleaning.

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This is my all the time approach.  The used paper is a great firestarter too when folded up if fires are permitted.  A small spray bottle works well.

 

[BigT]

Doesn't vinegar and water leave your dishes smelling like vinegar? (a smell I find grotesque)

I've never tried it, so I'm only guessing that it would.

 

[highdesertranger]

I use vinegar for a lot of cleaning the odor goes away fast. highdesertranger

 

[Moxadox]

Some people really can't stand the smell of vinegar. Seems to be a genetic thing. For those folks, there's CampSuds, comes in a little bottle, very concentrated, rinses off even more easily than Dr. Bronner's.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[highdesertranger]

so you have had good luck with CampSuds, Wolfess? for me it's one step above straight water and a very small step at that. highdesertranger

 

[Moxadox]

Yeah, I'd agree with that assessment....

The Dire Wolfess

 

[tx2sturgis]

CampSuds works for me too, but it's not really 'concentrated' like normal, thick, shampoos and soaps, its actually pretty thin. And expensive.

You can make your own, just mix about 1 part regular green dish soap to about 3 parts water in a small squeeze bottle or spray bottle, and voila...cheap CampSuds.

It might not be quite as 'biodegradable'....so use common sense.

I dilute my shampoo the same way...it takes less clean fresh water to rinse it all out.

 

[maki2]

I generally spread out and stake by turning up the edges a cheap 5' x 7' Harbor Freight free tarp a good ways away from camp if I have more than a gallon of gray water to deal with (like showers) and let it evaporate then after it has been used fold it in on itself and store till it gets to dirty to deal with then put it in the trash.

if you do go to a car wash that uses wands, not the drive through type, then you could rinse the tarp off and reuse it many more times. No need to throw it away.

 

[Dingfelder]

Too much water in the fall can interfere with the plant's preparations for winter, too, by encouraging greenery that will use up the plant's energy and also make it more susceptible to injury by increasing the sap flow.  A tree sprouting new green buds in late fall may be in trouble come winter.

Really, too much water in any season may redirect a plant's growth from its natural patterns as it tries to adapt to the excess and take advantage of it.  For instance, it might not grow roots deep enough to sustain it when hot weather comes, or even to hold itself upright in a stiff wind.  An overly green plant may also snap in windy conditions, as well as be more tempting to bugs and other pests.  

This is why some gardeners water only moderately as summer approaches, even for plants that grow very well when there is a lot of water.  You don't want a plant that can die or be significantly damaged in a single exceptionally hot day.  That same gardener might water more as the season goes on, once the plants have had a chance to establish themselves properly.

Over-watering is actually one of the most common mistakes new gardeners make.

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

OK,  This doesn't really answer your question but here is an alternative you might consider:

Now, I don't really "cook" anything. I just heat things up. I have been practicing this aspect of vandwelling for most of my life. Therefore, I don't have a lot of dishes. I watched Bob's relatively recent video about cooking and washing dishes. I seriously doubted that one could actually wash a pot with just a few squirts of water. Guess what? I was totally wrong. 

Again, I only heat up food in my one pot. (It is one of those cheap Walmart, non-stick-ish camping pots. I gave away everything but the pot itself.)

Here is what I do:

1. Dump the soup or whatever out of the can into the pot.
     (Leave the can sitting on my "counter" for now.)
2. Heat the food.
     (I use a silicone spatula-spoon-ish thing that I got at Walmart because I can leave it in the pot as I am heating my food without worrying about it melting or burning my hand.)
3. After heating the food, I lick the spatula as clean as I can while the food is still hot and tasty.
4. Eat the food out of the pot.
     (using my plastic spoon because it wipes clean very easily) 
5. After I have eaten everything I can scrape out of the pot with the spoon, I lick the spoon as clean as I can.
6. I use the spatula thing to scrape as much as possible out of the pot as I can. It is easier because this spatula thing has flat sides but is still stiffer than a regular spatula. I scrape the waste food off the spatula into the can. I don't eat it because it is cold and partially dried by now. You do what you want. I can scrape a lot of the spatula clean on the edge of the soup can.
7. NOW, I get out my little spritzer bottle. 
     (I couldn't find the one I got at the Walmart in Parker, AZ but it is a tiny little thing that only holds maybe a cup of water.)
8. I hold my spoon and spatula over the pot and spritz them with plain water. Then I wipe them off with a paper towel. They come perfectly clean with nothing but water.
9. I spritz the inside of the pot just enough to wet it down, then wait about a minute for the dried stuff to soften up some.
10. I wipe the stuff out of the inside of the pot. Sometimes it takes a second or third spritzing and wiping.
11. Any paper towels that have food on them just go into the trash. If I did campfires, I guess I could burn them after they dried.
12. I almost always have one last paper towel that either has no food on it or just the faintest trace. I just let that dry out and use it for my first paper towel next time. 

Altogether, I use about 3-6 tablespoons of water to clean my "dishes." I don't have anything to dump out at all. 

I also don't use any vinegar either. I only got so much room for storing spray bottles, so I decided to try it without the vinegar and it works fine. I am not too concerned about a super fine layer of food molecules being left in the pot. I'm gonna boil water in it for my oatmeal the next morning anyway.