According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), if every U.S. commercial food service establishment installed and used a WaterSense labeled pre-rinse spray valve, we could save more than 10 billion gallons of water, more than $225 million in water and energy costs and prevent the equivalent of 900,000 tons of CO2 emissions—equal to the emissions from 187,500 passenger vehicles—annually across the country.
EPA estimates that approximately 51 billion gallons of water is used every year to rinse dishes by close to 1 million food service establishments in the country. Pre-rinse spray valves—which remove excess food waste from dishes prior to dishwashing—are now eligible to earn the WaterSense label and help food service establishments save water, energy, and money.
Restaurants and commercial kitchens are one of the highest energy consumers in commercial buildings, using approximately five to eight times more energy per square foot than other commercial spaces. Outfitting a kitchen with WaterSense labeled pre-rinse spray valves, along with ENERGY STAR certified food service products, will save energy and water.
Like all WaterSense labeled products, pre-rinse spray valves that earn the label must be independently certified for efficiency and performance. Working in conjunction with industry stakeholders, EPA specifies a maximum flow rate for WaterSense labeled pre-rinse spray valves of 1.28 gallons per minute, 20 percent less water than the federal standard. To ensure that these fixtures will work well and meet the demands of high-volume kitchens while using less water, EPA also includes spray force performance criteria and a requirement for life cycle testing for the products to earn the WaterSense label.
“Pre-rinse spray valves can account for nearly one-third of the water used in a typical commercial kitchen,” said EPA Acting Administrator for Water Nancy Stoner. “Replacing just one of these fixtures with a WaterSense labeled model can save a typical restaurant more than 7,000 gallons of water per year, the amount of water needed to wash nearly 5,000 racks of dishes.”