Greywater is defined as soft wastewater from sources such as the toilet, drains of showers, bath, kitchen sink, and laundry washers. Any water drained from the house other than toilet water as greywater. It normally contains dirt, hair, traces of food, grease, and other home cleaning products.

Some people often mistake it for blackwater or sewage water. But the two are entirely different from each other especially in terms of organic load. Blackwater has much larger organic loading properties compared to greywater.

We all know that freshwater is precious. Using it, and reusing it is important to sustain us and the next generations. Although it appears to be dirty, greywater can be reused for many purposes such as irrigation, watering plants, landscaping, and even flushing our toilets. All you need is a jug or a bucket to get started. Simple piping is another way to collect greywater that involves the installation of plumbing connections in between the washers drain pipe and the lawn.

This is a simple DIY system that can be built with materials like hose pipes and connectors. The most complex and expensive greywater collecting system is the integrated sewage and piping where the entire house’s plumbing is integrated into a collection system. Professionals must be hired to make sure that the work is properly done.

Important Benefits of Reusing GreyWater

Using greywater for other purposes decreases the amount of freshwater use in our homes. By using greywater to water houseplants or flush toilets, we save a fair amount of fresh water, therefore, contributing to its conservation.

This is particularly important in places that experience fewer rains, dry climates or going through droughts. Greywater also helps in lessening water wastage.

Since freshwater is normally used for all the different functions in our homes, we produce a great amount of wastewater which eventually is disposed of through the sewage systems. We can avoid this unnecessary wastage by reusing greywater for another purpose before it is disposed of. This cuts the amount of water wasted into half.

Greywater can also be a good solution to reduce energy consumption in each household. When freshwater demands decrease for each household, the energy demand required to pump water into these homes is significantly reduced. Reduced energy leads to less electricity consumption. As a result, fossil fuel decreases helping to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. When water sent to sewage is reduced, the amount of chemicals used in water treatment decreases too. As a result, sewage treatment plants make use of chemicals. 

This is helpful to the environment because it reduces the demand for chemical production. Greywater also contains nutrients that serve as alternatives for fertilizers. Greywater requires different guidelines for it to be reused. It cannot be stored for more than 24 hours. Storing it will cause its nutrients to break down which will eventually create a bad odor.

Pathogens may be present in greywater too. This happens when it gets contaminated by human fecal matter. It is important to make sure that your system is designed in such a way that the water will soak into the ground and not be presented for drinking purposes for both people and animals.