Greywater

Reusing greywater can save hundreds of litres of fresh water and offers an additional resource to help people go one step further in the effort to save water.

Drinking water quality is not required to do everything around the home with water. Watering the garden and flushing the toilet, for example, are just as effective using greywater. By capturing some of the wastewater and re-using it, can reduce the strain on the town water supply and save money on water bills. 

Using greywater can be as simple as bucketing it out by hand into the garden (cheap but a little labour intensive), or as complex as installing an automatic diversion, treatment and irrigation system (very convenient but more costly to set up).

Greywater is generated from using a shower, bath, laundry, hand basin and kitchen (only when going to a greywater treatment system) – it doesn’t include water from the toilet, urinal or bidet.

Provided you use greywater in the appropriate way, it is safe to use on your garden. Greywater can contain certain disease-causing micro organisms, fats, oils, detergents, salt and other things derived from household and personal cleaning activities. However, if properly used, these pose little threat to health and the environment.