First, a tidbit that amuses me: Ecologists have referred to human waste as “black water” for years now. How fitting.
Moving on, today’s RUST inspired lesson will be on DIY grey water systems.
What is grey water?
It is anything that goes down the drain (not the toilet). In other words, the kitchen sink, the bath tub, the laundry.Generally there may be cleaning solvents, soap, food particles or other fairly harmless organisms in it. There are some really fun and easy ( did I mention cheap) ways to do this.
Why would you want to?
The water that goes down the drain could just as easily go back into the soil and therefore back into the water table.
Why do you need to filter it?
Those soaps and food particles are best not going directly onto your lawn, for example.
What you need:
(look at used materials shops and keep an eye out for found materials)
50 gallon blue barrels, best if 2 or more.
standard poly tubing
gravel- enough to fill each barrel 2/3
plants (think anything that would live in a pond or ditch.)
*my instructor told us he just grabbed a bucket full out of a ditch along the road
*suggested: pussywillows, rice, duckweed, water celery,water hyacinth, azolla
How to:
1.Cut the barrels in half
assemble the piping so that where the water comes in the tubing is high on the barrel, then low where the water comes out
*It is necessary for the barrels to be tiered as shown in order for the water to move through the gravel as much as possible.
*you may need rubber to tightly seal the tubing
2.Fill 2/3 with gravel
3. Plant your tubers and other vegetation
*my instructor recommended dumping in some sludge from a pond you trust in order to cultivate the microbe culture that will work best
4. Try it out!
At their property in Texas they have a different system with the same principals. They set it up with found bath tubs and the same gravel and plants. The water went into the top of the tub and the drainage went out the bottom, into the top of the next (preferably at opposite ends)
The goal is to have the water move through as many of the roots and gravel as possible, because that’s where the cleaning roots and microbes are.
Here’s an image of the tubs:
Here’s a good image of a grey water system from greywater.com:
*Note: it is not recommended to eat the vegetation in this system. The vegetation is using the toxins as fuel and stores it in the cells.
I will post on a closed water system for growing food later.
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Excellent article. Just a note: this idea is not just for urbanites on municipal septic. People who have individual septic systems should consider managing their gray water separately as well.
Yes, with a septic system all your waste water goes fairly quickly back into the water table. However, gray water almost always contains soaps, lyes, and other bacteria inhibiting particles that slow down – or even stop – the proper aerobic work of a septic system. This puts a strain or load on a good “black” water septic system.
Modern septic is fairly new (although it was popular in the Roman era and forgotten as well as a number of ancient Asian populations). In the 1900’s many farms, as they moved to mechanized clothes washing added “dry wells” to take the flow of gray water. In fact, many had these dry wells long before they stopped using their outhouses. Dry wells would take waste from indoor washing and run it through very rough stone in a shallow, (usually) covered, hole.
Some other notes. If you have a garbage disposal in your sink stop using it or, better yet, get rid of it all together and start composting. Sink water mixed with food scraps is not gray water. Its not really black water either and even in traditional septic system it isn’t the most ecologically or financially sound thing to add more solids to your waste (although it is STILL better than putting more into the solid waste stream).
If you have a traditional septic system take care of it. Make sure it is vented properly both at the field and through your home. Make sure the solids in your take are “cooking” properly with good bacteria and that you don’t flush inappropriate things into it.
If you use a municipal septic system, you pay the same whether you treat it well or not. Sadly it is out of sight out of mind, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of it. Don’t flush or dispose of hazardous materials in your toilet. Never flush medication! Conserve water.
Thanks, Candice, for great articles!
Thanks Dale,
You mentioned something that I meant to say and didn’t. Composting is the most mutually beneficial way to dispose of food and other biologically friendly waste. That way, the nutrients go back into the soil, not in a landfill where it will never break down.
That’s a post for another day.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
A quick note on toxins in greywater: If you don’t put toxic things down the drain they won’t be in your greywater! You can use it on food crops (just don’t put it on the edible parts of the plants- water the roots), fruit trees are great to water with greywater.
Thats quite good info. We are gathering such info for our short video film. This is helpful.
Thank you.
v cool…
I’m starting with a simple run-off solution: rain barrel to catch the water from the roof in a rainstorm. I’ll let you know how that goes and keep gray-water solutions in mind for the future.
Build your own Greywater Recycling System for $350 and save over 30% on your monthly water bill.
http://www.grey-is-green.com
Visit the website for details!