Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Grey Water Re-Use

In our household, approximately a 100 gallons of water per week become what the industrial system calls "grey water". In reading about this substance, it is the second most deadly substance known to man, the first being human feces.

Our kitchen sink has a bucket underneath it. You wash your hands and the water runs straight through the sink and is captured in the bucket. When the bucket is full, a kid takes the bucket out and pours it on a fruit tree.

I find it kind of offensive that the industrial system would think I'm stupid enough to think that water, having come into contact with my child's dirty hands, is now a toxic substance that must be dealt with on the level of industrial waste.

Their feet? Maybe.

I'm currently designing a greywater system where my wife can drain laundry water and dishwater out a pipe and into a large pit designed to hold it while a water-hungry tree sucks it up. The location I've picked means this water-hungry tree will eventually shade my cabin.

I've got a book which talks about how to do this, and over the next week or two you can expect lots of posts (hopefully with pictures) on the topic.

At worst, it doesn't work and I pull up the pipe and try something else.

3 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

The folks who use composting toilets might feel that the government was over-reacting about feces, too.

Ernest said...

That was kind of my point. We use 5 gallon buckets around here as a "toilet" and fill it with mulch or sawdust. Then it goes out to the compost pile where it breaks down into the best looking garden soil I've ever seen.

I had to fight the gov on the matter already. I seem to have dodged the bullet by explaining to them we don't generate "waste" and therefore we don't fall under their jurisdiction.

Recycled Cottage & Garden said...

My Dad and a friend have both diverted laundry water for use outside. Dad has his hooked to a hose and sprinkler.