The average American household consumes 90 gallons of fresh drinking water each day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And a good portion of that water goes to waste.
But it doesn’t have to, which is why today’s Green Around the House Challenge is getting serious about conserving—and reusing—water. Specifically, it’s all about gray water.
Water you use at home for dishwashing, showering, washing hands, and laundry—called gray water—comprises 50 to 80 percent of residential water waste, according to Graywater Central. But gray water doesn’t have to go to waste. Instead, it can be used to water your yard.
A gray water system includes a surge tank into which all gray water drains, a filter to remove particles that might clog the system, and irrigation pipes or lines that move the gray water from the house to your plants. You can learn more about gray water basics from this helpful Natural Home article.
Yet you don’t have to install a complex system to reuse water. Simply leave a bowl in the sink or a pail in the shower to catch water for giving thirsty plants a drink. Or collect and reuse water from your dehumidifer. Another common method, according to the Colorado State University Extension is to drain your washing machine water directly onto outside vegetation (although, admittedly, this method is illegal in most states).
Gray water systems, which can capture and recycle as much as half of your daily household water, are growing increasingly common in newly built homes and are being retrofit into many existing residences. Yet many areas regulate the use of gray water—and some even ban it. So before you spend the cash on a gray water system, be sure to check state and local gray water laws and policies. If gray water systems aren’t allowed in your area, perhaps you can start a movement to change policymakers’ minds.
Wondering whether it’s good to use “dirty” water on your yard? The UMass Extension offers some handy guidelines for safely using gray water. Some of their pointers include:
- Use the right soaps. Although soap and detergent is biodegradable, it can cause problems if you use gray water for a long time (because excessive amounts of sodium salts, present in many cleaning agents, can damage soil and plants). In particular, avoid detergents with “softening power,” phosphates, boron, and chlorine.
- Know how much gray water your yard can handle. A square foot of well-drained, loamy soil can soak up about a half gallon of gray water per week.
- Opt for shower and bathtub water first. Next up, use water from the bathroom sink, utility sink, washing machine, kitchen sink, and dishwasher in that order. UMass Extension actually recommends not using kitchen sink or dishwasher water because it may contain higher levels of grease, food particles, and other materials. And whatever you do, don’t recycle water from a washing machine used to wash baby diapers or water from the toilet.
- Stick with fresh water for vegetable gardens. The gray water is great for ornamental plants and shrubs, but you should use fresh water for the food you’ll eventually eat.
- Apply gray water directly to the soil surface rather than splashing it around or pouring it all over plants.
- Rotate gray water and fresh water applications to avoid contaminant buildup.
- Use gray water only on established plants, not seedlings.
If you’re interested in learning more about watering plants the gray way, visit the Greywater Guerillas website or check out this article from Natural Home magazine that covers the nuts and bolts of gray water use.
Or if you really want to get serious, read Create an Oasis with Greywater or The Builder’s Greywater Guide.
If you’d rather not pour used water on your plants at all but would still like to conserve, here’s another use for your gray water: toilet flushing. It’s easy with the Aqus system, which captures water from the bathroom sink, filters and disinfects it, and sends it into the toilet for use when flushing. The savings are considerable: in a two-person household, using the Aqus can reduce metered water usage by 10 to 20 gallons a day, according to the manufacturer.
What else do you do to conserve water around the house? Leave a comment here!
Until tomorrow,
The Home Know-It-All
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