Waste Water Treatment Systems
Most people have heard that the world’s water supplies are in trouble due to the rising global population as well as the industrial and organic pollution of our rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans. Clean freshwater for drinking is increasingly hard to come by, and supplies are threatened everywhere. Luckily, we have all the tools we need to combat and reverse this trend- but more people must become aware of the problem and take positive action.
The first thing we need to do, and this may require a shift in attitudes for many people, is to rethink our associations and feelings regarding “waste”. It’s probably accurate to say that most people, at least and especially in industrialized countries, think of things like excrement, urine, and dishwater as waste and therefore inherently dirty. Society has taught them that dirty things are bad and are to be destroyed, or gotten rid of- thrown away. Unfortunately for this kind of thinking, reality dictates that there is no real “away”. It has to go somewhere. So instead of facing up to this fact and moving from there, people are glad when their poop is flushed away using gallons of precious drinking water. If only they realized…
There’s nothing wasteful about our “waste”, meaning the things that come from our bodies. We use animal manure in fields to provide the nutrients that help grow our food. Manure is full of nutrients. The same goes for human manure, yet somehow we have turned away from the use of this wonderful fertilizer that is perfectly safe if composted in a thermophilic environment (something possible for everyone to achieve). Not only are we throwing away this valuable material that comes from our bodies, we are also polluting our water and environment with it! Not very smart, is it?
The same goes for greywater, which is all water except for toilet water. This water from our sinks, showers, and washing machines is put to good use by plants, which prefer it to water straight from the hose. Why do we throw away water that is perfectly good for plants, then waste more water to water them?
Utilizing greywater in the garden and composting our bodily secretions are two of the best waste water treatment methods, and the only ones that are really sustainable in the long run. They don’t require a whole lot of output on our part, and we start saving money instantly once we implement these solutions. Learn more and make the change!
