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Wash with Attitude
A stand-up wash is a great pleasure, in warm weather or in a well-heated bathroom. And it uses much less water and energy than a shower. The conventional advice about bathing for those who care about the environment is to take a shower rather than bath. The environmental advantage of showering rather than taking a bath can however easily be marginal or even negative. (I will give numbers towards the end of this article.)
When a stand-up wash is mentioned today it is often a joke - It's a stand-up wash in the sink for you Billy! - or else a piece of history - We used to have to have a good stand up wash and put two saucepans of water and a kettle on the gas stove.
Stand-up washing is marginalised, with showers and baths presented as the only alternatives. The normalised image is of an attractive young person, almost always female, enjoying an erotic shower. Yet this image is a fantasy if it is supposed to represent the experience of all. Most small children and many older conservative people don't like showers, which are often also unsuitable for people with physical or mental impairment.
Still, surely others would not choose stand-up washing today? Well, yes. And not only for its very low environmental impact. Nor because it saves a little time - a stand-up of the strategic bits is quicker than a shower and is perfectly adequate if you take a shower or bath every second or third day, depending on your activities and the weather.
We wash and bathe for various reasons, not just cleanliness and pleasure. Daily gentle abrading of hard skin after softening with warm water is a good idea (if you're still young and gorgeous, be warned - your turn will come). Bathing also has symbolic, ritual aspects, even if we do not usually notice them. People vary greatly in their washing and bathing practices and values, but we all - in today's industrialised society - exist in a social milieu that is anxious about bodies, their appearances and their smells. Age makes a great difference. Washing and bathing are very different as we proceed through babyhood, infancy, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and old age. For people with physical or mental impairment, having to be helped with what has become generally a private activity is a big issue.
The pleasure of bathing and of care of our physical and emotional well-being is important and is enhanced by being connected with care for our environment - which means using water and energy mindfully. The pleasure of a stand-up wash, assuming warm weather or in a well-heated bathroom, is twofold. There is the pleasure of being light on the earth, and there is the pleasure of a different physical experience. Ringing the changes between the different kinds of bathing keeps our senses alive. The same seven minute shower, day in day out, soon ceases to be special.
From the point of view I am here presenting, more luxurious forms of bathing can be justified, even though they use a lot more water and energy. Hot tubs and saunas and the like enhance our well-being and connect us with each other and with nature in ways that are special. But the earth will not allow humans to enjoy such luxuries thoughtlessly. They have to be occasional treats, perhaps ceremonial, and the facilities must be collective and managed for the most efficient use of water and energy.
Now, what about this claim that a stand-up wash uses much less water and energy than a shower? I have made measurements and calculations of my own usage. My shower heats cold water immediately with a 7.5 kW element and this necessarily entails an economical flow rate of water, about 4 litres per minute. I have my shower on for about 7 minutes, using about 23 litres of water and 0.8 kWh of electricity (which costs 0.34 kg of CO2). My stand-up wash uses one-third of that amount of water and one-quarter the CO2 emission (with gas as the fuel and estimating that 60% of the calorific value of the gas is transferred to the hot water in the basin).
Is it possible to be 'nice', by modern standards, with only 8 litres of water? Yes, and probably cleaner than a bath, because there are three stages, 4 + 2.5 + 1.5 litres. And it's a wash of what needs washing, not all over. You can work it out.
Even this shower use is low compared with values published for average practice and for recommended careful practice in various industrialised countries. I have collected figures which range between 40 and 140 litres for a 7 minute shower (175 litres for a power shower!). These higher flow rates (6 to 20 litres per minute) will be for hot water supplied showers, so the energy source can be gas not electricity. Still, the high flow rates make this style of showering nearly as water and energy intensive as a bath. Figures I collected for a bath range from 150 litres (big bath!) to 80 litres.
I find the flow rate of 4 litres per minute to be fine, though I can understand that people who are used to a much higher rate would take time to get used to a more gentle shower. A factor here is that showering in a powerful jet of hot water can be harmful due to the chlorine in the water.
So, dear people, my message is three-fold. When you shower, watch the flow. Choose stand-up at least half of the time. And really engage with the physical and spiritual pleasure, whether it be stand-up, shower or bath.
Happy bathing
Alan Cottey, 9 March 2007
Alan will be running the Washing for the World workshop as part of the week. Time and location to be confirmed.