Benefits of Greywater Recycling

Greywater recycling has numerous benefits as the article below outlines. Always remember that grey water should never be stored in water tanks for more than 24 hours. If stored longer, bacteria & microorganisms that may be harmless in low concentrations, can become a potential threat at higher concentrations.

Population growth means lowering water supplies, making water conservation becomes an increasing important issue. As supply dwindles, costs will rise so the conservation is necessary to maintain a certain level of controlled water costs. We can consider the efficiency of using water in regular activities we do such as watering our lawns, takings showers and washing cars as something that needs to be tightly controlled. One step of making sure you conserve water is to use greywater. This will greatly help diminish the dependency on groundwater reserves you need to deal with:

Greywater in essense is water that was already used in applications such as showers, washing machines, baths and sinks. Greywater is unfortunately not a potable resource, as it happens to contain bacteria and sometimes even pathogens. Filtrated greywater on the other hand can be used to replace fresh water for irrigation or non-edible plants instead. You can also recycle water to use it for toilet flushing as well.

On the other hand, blackwater is water that has been used in sewage systems. The organic waste content inside will make it really hard to use blackwater in a safe way. Kitchen sinks, dishwashers and garbage disposals will be either blackwater or greywater depending on the area and use.

Greywater recycling is pretty popular nowadays so you can find a number of commercially available greywater systems. A lot of these are simple, while others may be higher in costs and more sophisticated as well. Simpler systems usually don’t really treat the water, but they usually allow recycled water to be dumped into the environment. Complex systems on the other hand will work on removing the impurities inside before the water can be used for irrigation.

Some systems will use a sand filter connected to a drain line in more sophisticated cases. The sand filter will work on getting rid of some of the impurities and bacteria. After passing through the sand filter, water will be redirected to a sump thank where it will be pumped toward the irrigation area or for reuse in a toilet. You will however need to check with the local laws so you can find more information on regulations concerning greywater.

Another system typically used is the so-called branched drain variety, which uses a number of drains splitting off into even more drains to safely dispose of greywater into the ground. Other systems rely on drip irrigation to filter out any particulate matter that can’t be a part of it. You may also need to clean the filters manually with some systems however, so you will need to be aware of the way things work.

The benefits of using greywater recycling include the reducing of potable water by up to 40%, reducing water bills, reducing energy and chemicals used to treat water at waste treatment plants. They can also reduce your dependency on imported water, encouraging the use of nontoxic products in the process and connecting the people to the local household water supply.

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Source: Guest post by Heather Roberts (Heather Roberts is a freelance guest blogger from London, UK. She has got many published articles on various topics such as cleaning, organizing, home and garden etc. She loves to spend her time with family and friends and she also tries to live an eco-friendly life).

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