Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Recycling greywater?
It’s pretty clear that our world is changing in many ways. One of the great changes is in the way we’re teaching our kids about recycling, reusing and reducing. We’re also moving ever closer to taking better care of our natural resources. One idea that I find interesting is something called recycling greywater.
First let’s define it, greywater is your homes waste water… no, not THAT waste water. Toilet water and food preparation water (your kitchen sink) is called black water and must be treated before it can be reused. However, the water that’s drained from your bathtub, sinks, shower and washing machines is called greywater.
Diverting this water to use in your landscape has a lot of potential benefits. It conserves resources, recycles water on site and reduces the volume of water entering waste water treatment facilities.
Before doing this – you must check with your local water utility company to make sure it’s okay to do so. There may also be some plumbing regulations as well.
You can do it yourself by draining your washer into buckets OR you can buy a do-it-yourself kit OR you can hire a company to replumb your appliances.
This website, Greywater Irrigation, is maintained by a man named Carl Lindstrom. I don’t know him but I believe he has some interesting information. I direct you here as he offers a lot of information that you may find quite useful.
This site, Greywater Action, is also filled with some great information showing different kinds of systems for different applications.