(Welcome again to Manda, one of the finalists in our Editor search for the upcoming Green Therapy blog. Comment away!)
Gray-water is one of those terms that separates the hardened greenie from the "just learning to separate your paper from your bottles" start-up.
For those of you who have been throwing around the word, but aren’t actually sure what it means: gray-water refers to water that has already been used in your home (excluding black-water: think toilet), and can be re-used. Usually gray-water is re-used for irrigation, but it can also be re-used for many other purposes.
Gray-water is one of those green things that most apartment dwellers discount. You might, however, already be reusing your gray-water without the fancy language. Maybe instead of pouring out the glass of water that you didn’t drink you put the water into a plant or give it to your dogs.
There are many small ways of reusing water in an apartment. There is the low-tech, but slightly embarrassing work of bucketing up the water from your bathtub and using it to flush your toilet or fill your washing machine.
And then there is the more conventional and slightly higher-tech options like disconnecting the down-spout on your gutter and letting the water run into your yard or, even better, getting a rain-barrel and catching rainwater for use in your yard.
And there are some gadgets designed just for you. The one in my house that gets the most attention is the faucet on top of the toilet. Called the sinkpositive and found at sinkpositive.com, this gadget works by taking fresh water from the pipe and running it through a faucet where one is encouraged to wash their hands. The water then goes to fill up the toilet bowl (thereby getting its reuse) and all of this happens whenever you flush the toilet bowl.
It is cool, hygienic, and well worth the price ($90) as a conversation piece.
-Manda
Manda, Thanks for explaining gray water. This is fantastic. I am an obsessive gray water user, but only in small ways: this week, for example, I am spending a lot of time watering our garden with the water from my daughter's paddling pool (one scoop at a time). When we redo our toilets we will definitely go with the sinkpositive, so thanks for the link.
I don't know if this is too off-topic, but I would love to replan my garden so that I don't have to water it every day. (In fact, I don't water it; I let it wither because I can't bear to stand there running the hose.) Do you know where I could learn more about planning an eco-conscious (midwestern) garden?
Many many thanks. I enjoyed this post as well as the one on G-diapers; that was the most thoughtful discussion I've read on AT-Chicago ever.
view Saha 's profile
Or you can do it the low budget way--remove the u-shaped pipe under your bathroom sink and put a bucket under the pipe. The water from the sink will drain into the bucket. Use the water to flush your toilet. It's free!
view frances's profile
I'd never heard of this concept before. Good explanation.
view LaDonnaNichole's profile
Buying something for $90 for a conversation piece is PSEUDO-GREEN.
view MrGreen's profile
Using grey water seems like the greatest thing when you're having a drought, but given the crap I put down the drain everyday, I'm not sure I'd want to re-encounter it in my toilet or garden on a regular, non-emergency basis. Also I'd be concerned that long-term use of grey water in a toilet could result in premature clogging of the water outlets beneath the toilet bowl rim.
I think collecting rainwater and resusing pool water are great ideas. My grandmother used rainwater for the laundry plus it's largely clean and according to her, was an excellent fabric softener. My other grandmother had a Kenmore washer which had two discharge hoses, one for recovering wash water from a laundry tub for a later wash and a second for final discharge to the drain.
view John H's profile
This is a great post. I'd love to see more low-tech ideas for reusing grey water. Maybe some info on how to make your own non-hideous rain bucket so that mosquitoes don't breed in the water?
view vera in dc's profile