Thread: Cleaning off the lather

Originally Posted by northpaw

I use a towel I keep on the dashboard so I don't have to take my eyes off the road.

Thats hilarious

Environmentally speaking, it seems it would be less waste to run the water intermittently that to fill a sink full. Depends on how long you run it, obviously. Towel would be least of all.

Might be an interesting topic to explore, to try to find the lowest impact shaving methods. Least hot water, least soap/cream used, etc while still getting a good shave

Originally Posted by Utopian

If you are in fact being serious, I will answer this.

If you are using cold water, then the issue is only as below. If you are using hot water, then the issue expands to the entire problem of the environmental impact of essentially committing deficit spending for our energy resources. We are burning, in the form of coal, oil, and natural gas, the products of millions of years of solar energy converted into carbon rich energy resources. Burning those products is creating an obvious problem for our environment. You either get it or you don't.

If you are using water that has come from a municipal water treatment plant, then there is most definitely an environmental impact. "Clean" and relatively "pure" water comes to you after going through a long process of physical, chemical, and biological treatment of that water. That water is going to become an increasingly scarce resource in the next century.



If it matters, I do what I can to avoid wasting water. I live in an area, like many others, that obtains part of its water from surface (river) water and part of it from deep underground aquifers. Every aquifer in the country is being depleted. That means that more water is being removed than is being replaced and the obvious result is a gradual reduction in the levels of those aquifers. The obvious implication is that, like carbon based fuels, we are on borrowed time with our water usage.

If you really care about this, and you are not squeamish, I strongly suggest that you try googling and reading an online book called the Humanure Handbook. If you don't like the concept, please don't bother criticizing it. You may consider it to be gross, but in my opinion, it is nowhere near as gross as sh*tting in your drinking water.

I must disagree, especially with the contention that there is or will be a shortage of water. There is currently as much water as there ever has been, it is just in different places. Even when water is used as a feed stock to chemical processes (for example hydrogen manufacture) the end products are ultimately converted back to water.

Yes, tap water is treated, but the process is not really that energy intensive. Yes, you burn fuel to heat hot water, but again, not that much (work it out if you do not believe me).

Waste is not the same thing as use. When you use a resource and gain a benefit, the resource is not wasted, it is used. If you wipe your razor on a towel, and then wash the towel to get the lather and hair off of it, you are using water; can you prove that you are not using more than I am by just rinsing the razor directly?

Very controversial topic! I rinse my blade under a short stream of hot water to keep the edge clean and I like the feeling of the warm blade for the next stroke. I'll take the water thing to the next level, sanitary issues...

When you fill a sink with hot water to be green, did you ever think about all the bacteria floating in that water? Think about it, you wash your hands in it, brush your teeth in it, especially after using the restroom. The sink is a cesspool of germs, bacteria and viruses which that hot water does not kill. If you cut yourself while shaving, rinse the blade and go back to shaving, you just basically put a dirty razor back over that open wound. I'm not saying we use a sterile edge when not swishing in the sink, but the risk becomes much higher there.

Before anyone starts calling me crazy and saying stuff like don't worry, germs don't live outside the body very long, go to the CDC website and you'll be shocked at how long disease can live outside the body and be transmitted. I suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder so naturally my outlook on germs is a bit more tedious than most,(as well as my education on disease), but think about what I said. I bet a few of you won't be filling the sink and swishing around anymore. Just trying to keep you all healthy!

I keep a small stream of hot water running while I shave and rinse it after every pass. If there's any stubborn lather that doesn't want to rinse, then I wipe it off on the moist towel I used to heat up my face. I like keeping the blade hot while I shave.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

I must disagree, especially with the contention that there is or will be a shortage of water. There is currently as much water as there ever has been, it is just in different places. Even when water is used as a feed stock to chemical processes (for example hydrogen manufacture) the end products are ultimately converted back to water.

Yes, tap water is treated, but the process is not really that energy intensive. Yes, you burn fuel to heat hot water, but again, not that much (work it out if you do not believe me).

Waste is not the same thing as use. When you use a resource and gain a benefit, the resource is not wasted, it is used. If you wipe your razor on a towel, and then wash the towel to get the lather and hair off of it, you are using water; can you prove that you are not using more than I am by just rinsing the razor directly?

And the amount of carbon on the planet is relatively stable as well, but both its distribution and form is starting to have a bit of an impact on our planet. Fresh water is a finite resource for an increasing population. It is not uniformly available to all and there are already water shortages in parts of this country. To assume they will not escalate is naive. Some of the larger aquifers in the US are being refilled at only 10% of the rate at which they are being emptied. That cannot go on forever (work it out if you do not believe me).

Originally Posted by Utopian

And the amount of carbon on the planet is relatively stable as well, but both its distribution and form is starting to have a bit of an impact on our planet. Fresh water is a finite resource for an increasing population. It is not uniformly available to all and there are already water shortages in parts of this country. To assume they will not escalate is naive. Some of the larger aquifers in the US are being refilled at only 10% of the rate at which they are being emptied. That cannot go on forever (work it out if you do not believe me).

In order to buy into this argument, I would have to believe that CO2 levels in the atmosphere affect global temperatures rather than the other way around. Any rational analysis of the data, however, indicates that CO2 levels are a lagging indicator of atmospheric temperatues.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

If you wipe your razor on a towel, and then wash the towel to get the lather and hair off of it, you are using water; can you prove that you are not using more than I am by just rinsing the razor directly?

As I said in a previous post, I use washcloths for only one shower. Since I shave after showering, I use the washcloth to wipe the lather off. Since I will be washing the washcloth anyway, it doesn't take any additional resources to use it as a lather wiper.

I'm really not an eco-freak, but I dislike unneeded waste. It's especially important for those of us who live in a desert.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

In order to buy into this argument, I would have to believe that CO2 levels in the atmosphere affect global temperatures rather than the other way around. Any rational analysis of the data, however, indicates that CO2 levels are a lagging indicator of atmospheric temperatues.

We're heading way into off-topic territory. The fact of the matter is that there are potable water shortages in certain places. Yes, matter is conserved, but the distribution of said matter can be either more or less favorable. For people in less supplied areas, it's far more important to be mindful of your water use.

Example:

I live in San Diego. The Colorado river is one of our main sources of water. There is much competition for that water. We (here) are using more water than is sustainable, ie:reservoir depletion. This is a serious issue for us.



Back to shaving.... I use the washcloth because it saves a little water, but more importantly, I don't worry about nicking the blade.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

In order to buy into this argument, I would have to believe that CO2 levels in the atmosphere affect global temperatures rather than the other way around. Any rational analysis of the data, however, indicates that CO2 levels are a lagging indicator of atmospheric temperatues.

Okay, I'm out. It's not pertinent to the original topic, so I'm not going to argue this further. Go right on enjoying the abundance of the planet, secure in the knowledge that there is enough for everyone.

Originally Posted by dward

A quick run under the tap (2" minimum distance, and spine first) then wipe on the towel. I like the blade warm...

That's my MO.