Greywater

Greywater is what you get when you add a little soap and small amounts of dirt and/or food particles to the drinking water that comes out of the sink faucet. This does not include water that carries fecal matter, such as toilet water; that is referred to as blackwater. While blackwater legally requires significant treatment before it is allowed to be released, greywater is much more easily reused, thereby conserving both water and wallet.

The very best book to learn about greywater is Art Ludwig's The New Create an Oasis with Greywater. It will help inform you about what greywater is and how to take advantage of the greywater you are generating every day in your home. You should also visit his website and peruse the section on greywater.

I have tried a couple of ways of using greywater. The first was to build an outdoor sink. Each year when it warms up (and stays warm) I hook up a garden hose to the sink to provide the water. I then use the sink to process the fruits and vegetables that are harvested. The resulting "waste" water is still pretty clean, but no longer really drinkable. So, to not waste good waste water, the sink drain has another garden hose attached that makes it so I can rinse veggies and water the garden at the same time.

Another method involves a two-basin kitchen sink. One side is left to drain to the sewer. The other side has an open drain pipe that drops the water into a bucket. This allows for draining to the sewer when the resulting wash water would not be appropriate for the yard, while also have the option to capture perfectly good greywater and be able to take it out to where it is needed. With this system, always check the bucket before using the side that drains into it. Make sure that a bucket is in place and make sure it has enough capacity left to hold the water that will be added to it. This system is easily used in bathroom sinks as well. You just have to remember that all of the water drains into the bucket - there is no option to drain to the sewer.

A variation on the method above is to rearrange the plumbing under the kitchen sink so that a valve is added which directs the flow of water from the sink drain to either the sewer or to an open pipe over a bucket. Even nicer is changing from an open pipe to one that drops the water into an outside barrel and pipe/hose system that removes the need to haul out the buckets.

A third means of redirecting greywater is via the washing machine. I had a very nice green lawn by putting the hose from the washing machine out the laundry room window and using some other odds and ends to direct the flow to dry parts of the lawn. There are some legal and health safety concerns with this method, however. An improved way is to put the water into mulch pits around woody perennials, such as fruit trees and shrubs. This keeps any health hazards in the mulch. The water is spread over the mulch where naturally occurring microbes cheerfully strain out wastes in the water. The microbes also help break down the mulch into excellent compost which can then benefit the plant it is already around or be hauled off to help other plants. And the water, which has been cleaned and filtered by the microbes, is appreciated by the woody perennial, helping it grown and produce well. Any water that is not used by plants, filters down through the earth as it would naturally.

See also:

• http://greywateraction.org/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater
• http://www.greywater.com/
• http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_m/m-106.html
• http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/WastewaterManagement/GreywaterReuse.aspx
• http://extension.ucdavis.edu/unit/green_building_and_sustainability/pdf/resources/greywater.pdf

I do not endorse or take responsibility for the content found by clicking on the links above. I am providing them as alternative perspectives that may help you determine whether utilizing greywater in your sphere of influence is a good idea or not.