grey water recycling system

[anniefish]

Hi all,
I'm interested in making a grey water recycling system. I'm thinking of making a concrete trench with baffles into which I'll put gravel and sand and plant water loving plants. I'd have the trench going down hill gradually to aid water flow and hope to have clean water at the end. Only using water from the washing machine and bathrooms. I'm not sure how long to have the trench or how deep. Any tips or ideas? I'm going to use the water on the garden not household. I'm sure I've seen an article or spot on TV about a Sydney house with a system like this, does anyone know about it?
Hope you are all fine. It's rather cool this morning here. Just finished a huge week at work, and had two cars break down in the past two weeks!! Lord give me strength.
Have a great day, Ann

[GaryD]

Hi Annie,

The house in Sydney belongs to a man named Michael Mobbs. His web site is.... http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/

Here's another take on greywater recycling..... http://hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=65

This is the model that I prefer.....and that we'll be installing....on a smaller scale.....into our place.

Gary

[nick]

my thoughts were to get five or six or murrays big grow beds and put them in a row with stand pipes and have various gravels sizes in them and run the water in through the top one and then it flows into the second one through the stand pipe over flow to a bed with smaller gravel and then once that fills, have it flow to the next bed etc etc. seems easy, simple and probably very effecient.

You could also plant various non consumable plants in there to take out the nutrients.

[sillyoldfart]

Annie, I've either re-used the greywater from my laundry straight out onto my vegetable patch, or into a holding tank for later use, for nearly a decade.

There may be some reason or qualms about re-using shower water in this way, but I certainly don't see any great problems doing so.

Most "grey-water" systems being advocated and subsidised by councils here in NSW suggest garden re-use

Nick said

my thoughts were to get five or six or murrays big grow beds and put them in a row with stand pipes and have various gravels sizes in them and run the water in through the top one and then it flows into the second one through the stand pipe over flow to a bed with smaller gravel and then once that fills, have it flow to the next bed etc etc. seems easy, simple and probably very effecient.

You could also plant various non consumable plants in there to take out the nutrients.

Nick this would seem to be a considerably costly solution to disposal of the greywater, particularly if you're not going to produce anything consumerable from it.

Why bother spending the money? OK if you want to re-use for a flower garden or such.

What problem do you see with just letting it water, by drip, or hose etc the garden as you would normally water it except by using precious drinking water resources?

[njh]

read this site first:
http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/index.htm

basically, the best plan is to put the grey water directly onto trees that can deal with it, using mulched plant matter or similar to provide a biologically active absorbtion matrix.

[Quietly]

This is another site (Australian) that answers a few questions http://www.greywater.com.au/greywater.html
I have over the years read many articles on this subject. I'll have a look through the library and get back to you.
Quietly