Types of Simple Systems From the Washing Machine
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Install a 3-way valve for easy switching between the greywater system and the sewer/septic.Simple systems last longer, require less maintenance, require less energy and cost less money. Keep your system as simple as possible, avoid pumps, avoid filters that need upkeep.
Pooling greywater can provide mosquito breeding grounds, as well as a place for human contact with greywater. Infiltrate greywater into the ground, don’t allow it to pool up or run off (knowing how well water drains into your soil (or the soil percolation rate of your soil) will help with proper design.Greywater could potentially contain a pathogen if an infected person’s feces got into the water, so your system should be designed for the water to soak into the ground and not be available for people or animals to drink. If you store greywater the nutrients in it will start to break down, creating bad odors. Don’t store greywater (more than 24 hours).
Greywater is different from fresh water and requires different guidelines for it to be reused. Because complex systems rely on pumps and filtration systems, they are often designed by an engineer, are expensive to install and may require regular maintenance. These systems can treat and reuse large volumes of water, and play a role in water conservation in dense urban housing developments, food processing and manufacturing facilities, schools, universities, and public buildings.
We believe more complex systems are best suited for multi-family, commercial, and industrial scale systems. By modeling “appropriate technologies” for food production, water, and sanitation in the industrialized world, we hope to replace the cultural misconception of “wastewater” with the possibility of a life-generating water culture. Such systems recover valuable “waste” products–greywater, household compost, and humanure–and reconnect their human inhabitants to ecological cycles. We promote greywater reuse as a way to increase the productivity of sustainable backyard ecosystems that produce food, clean water, and shelter wildlife. We prefer irrigation systems that are designed to avoid clogging, rather than relying on filters and drip irrigation. We recommend simple, low-tech systems that use gravity when ever possible, instead of pumps. With simple systems you are not able to send greywater into an existing drip irrigation system, but must shape your landscape to allow water to infiltrate into the soil. We believe that for residential greywater systems simple designs are best. While you’re at it, watch out for your own health: “natural” body products often contain substances toxic to humans (see resource pages below for details). The build-up of salts and boron in the soil can damage plants. In any greywater system, it is essential to use “plant friendly” products, those without lots of salt, boron, or chlorine bleach. Greywater can also be used to irrigate vegetable plants as long as it doesn’t touch edible parts of the plants. The easiest way to use greywater is to pipe it directly outside and use it to water ornamental plants or fruit trees.
Reusing greywater for irrigation reconnects urban residents and our backyard gardens to the natural water cycle. Aside from the obvious benefits of saving water (and money on your water bill), reusing your greywater keeps it out of the sewer or septic system, thereby reducing the chance that it will pollute local water bodies. Keep in mind that if greywater is released into rivers, lakes, or estuaries, its nutrients become pollutants, but to plants, they are valuable fertilizer. While greywater may look “dirty,” it is a safe and even beneficial source of irrigation water in a yard. Greywater may contain traces of dirt, food, grease, hair, and certain household cleaning products. It is not water that has come into contact with feces, either from the toilet or from washing diapers. Greywater is gently used water from your bathroom sinks, showers, tubs, and washing machines.
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