Gray Water

Yesterday we talked about conserving water by turning off the water while brushing your teeth or wash your face, but there are certain times when you cant reduce the amount of water you are using.  For some time I figured this was inevitable we just had to use and ‘waste’ this water, but what happens to the water once it goes down the drain? Is there any way to conserve it then?

            I typed water recycling into Google and low and behold such a thing does exist, it is reusing waste water for things such as agriculture, industrial processing, landscape irrigation, and toilet flushing.  It should not really matter where the water came from that’s in the toilet right? Waste water treatment is based on where the waters next destination is, for instance water that goes back to the shower will be more vigorously cleaned than water that’s going to the toilet.  This science has even progressed so far to make reusable drinking water!

            This process takes a lot of precaution, which is why water from residential and commercials have a special name: gray water.  This water tends to come from sinks, bathtubs, and washing machines; and it tends to be recycled for landscape and agricultural purposes.

            For those of you readers who are still skeptical about this idea there are two more things I am going to say to try and convince you. There have been no health problems reported due to recycled water, and that the world has been doing this naturally for years. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation and the cycle just keeps repeating, that is nature’s way of recycling water. Water recycling is just another faster way to do what the environment is doing.

            Before I started thinking about ‘wasted water’ I had no idea that something like water recycling existed.  This is where we as people trying to make a greener earth come in, we need to raise awareness about water recycling and push major corporations and cities to do so.  The more water that can be recycled the less we are taking from the environment, leaving some of the earth’s natural resources in tact.  Water recycling can decrease the amount of water taken out of ecosystems, decreases discharge to sensitive water bodies, help prevent pollution, and can conserve energy. 

            After reading yesterdays blog I felt the need to run to the food store and purchase a lot of bottled water, so that when the world ran out I would still have some to drink.  But, after finding out about recycled water I defiantly feel less panicked about the situation if we really pushed for water recycling we would not have to worry about running out of water because what we already used could be reused, not having to take as much from the earth as we do now. So  my question for you is are you going to run to the food store, be ignorant about the situation, or start pushing for water recycling to better our earth?

TC