Every drop counts

Hello guys. Today's post is about a nightmare task I had from school...

Our engineering module required of us to complete a project that entailed developing a greywater system to recycle greywater. And boy oh boy was this project ENORMOUS!

Through the course of the project, I gathered that few Singaporeans are aware of greywater recycling. As such I decided to share relevant information to get people interested.

Greywater is defined as discharges from laundry, toilets and kitchen sinks. Using ingredients like gravel, sand and activated carbon, a typical greywater recycling system can treat greywater to be usable for activities like watering plants and carwashing (Fig. 1). 

Fig. 1 Overview of a typical system installed in a household (source: http://www.nitv.org.au/fx-story.cfm?sid=54DAB1AC-A603-81A1-323BD3167986335D)

So why is this important to us?

We know that Singapore has one of the highest rainfall in the world. However, water scarcity is still a major concern. Singapore lacks natural water resources and our water sustainability reduces during dry periods.

Therefore, the greywater system is one way to prepare for possible water crisis since it recycles water that we usually flush away unnecessarily.

The complexity of the system differs depending on how clean the owner desires the water to be. Intrinsic systems are often more complex as they are installed into a household (Video 1).

Video 1

On the other hand, simple and yet beautiful greywater systems which my group set up only require basic materials. Recyclable materials like plastic bottles and cloth can contain the same ingredients and be fully functional (Fig. 2). However, greywater must be manually poured into this system and this could be a huge turn-off for Singaporeans.

Fig. 2 Simple set-up of the Greywater Recycling System containing one layer of gravel, sand, weeds planted in soil and activated carbon with cloth holding each layer in place. Photo taken on 14 October

Both systems are tedious to set up and the benefit of recycling one’s water is not financially visible with water being affordable in Singapore. However, I believe that every little drop should be fully used so that Singapore's water consumption per capita can drop to 140 litres before the target year of 2030 set by PUB (PUB, 2014).

So go forth and make one for yourself to help save some water today!

Literature Cited

PUB, Public Utilities Board (2014, June 10). Conserve. Overview. Retrieved from PUB, Singapore's national water agency: http://www.pub.gov.sg/conserve/Pages/default.aspx