Recycle Waste Water

The domestic water supply that comes into your property has to be by law pure enough for us to drink. This water is also known as ‘Potable Water’ which is a Latin term for drinkable. When it arrives it is fresh and pure, we then use it and discard it back out to the drainage system as waste water. This type of waste water from our washing machines, sinks and dishwashers is different as it sits in between and is known as grey-water and actually forms around 60-80% of a homes waste water. NW4 Plumbers can install grey water systems. This grey water from your sinks, basins, and your bath and shower too can be diverted to a storage tank so that it can be reused for things like irrigation and water for WC flushing. You could take waste as well, however, you need to ensure that oils and food waste are not washed down the drains. When it is in the tank, the waste will sediment, and all the light scum floats to the top and then run away down a drain. The more heavy sediment is also there, but this will sink to the bottom of the tank and can be flushed away periodically to the soil stack. The water that is now in the middle of the tank is very clear, not to drink, but would be fine for WC flushing. Bacteria will form just after 24 hours making storage risky and short lived. You also need the back up of mains cold water fed from a tank with an air gap and a weir overflow, and would probably be built into the system, for when grey water is not available. An NW4 Plumber can advise on grey water.

A positive for these types of system is they don’t need a large tank buried in the garden, so installation cost is low.
A negative is that you cant collect a large amount of water and there is a risk of foul smells from the flush water.
There is no real reason why you couldn’t combine grey water and rainwater harvesting, so the grey water supplies the water for the toilet and the rainwater used in the garden and perhaps the washing machine.

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