Sunday, July 19, 2009

Grey water for a green earth



Ever heard of "greywater"?
I had not until about a year ago. Greywater is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing. Greywater comprises 50-80% of residential wastewater. NOTE this is NOT water from toilet waste. Toilet waste water is called blackwater.




I like the idea of it I simply don't have the means at hand to build a system myself.
But its a good green topic to have a look at. Reusing greywater serves two purposes: it reduces the amount of freshwater needed to supply a household, and reduces the amount of waste water entering sewer or septic systems. In some states it is necessary to obtain permits before installing a greywater system.

Grey water can be used to water lawns and gardens. There are even some ways to reuse greywater to flush the toilet rather than using perfectly good fresh drinking water to do so but that takes some serious setup to be sure the greywater doesnt backsiphon into the freshwater lines.
Below are some links to more info on greywater and the ways to setup treatment and irrigation systems using it.

http://www.greywateralliance.org/
http://www.greywater.com/
http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/
http://greywaterfacts.com/index.html

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