Cleaning & re-using Grey Water

LLD · Guru

Cleaning & re-using Grey Water

Kebbin · Guru

I have read that after 24hrs stored grey water should be treated the same as black water. I wouldn't reuse it, you would need an expensive system such as a reverse osmosis system. Try a water bladder in the tug for carrying some extra.

Cupie · Guru

I'd be wary about carrying old greywater .. smell & 'black water' factor.

I carry an old 5L plastic ex-distilled water container beside the toilet for flushing when not connected to mains water & travelling with empty tanks (which is often the case with us).

For extra drinking water, we use the $4 10L containers from WW or Coles etc. Just take as many as we might require for the particular trip.

Two of them fit snugly into a milk crate for protection & tie down ability.

I refill them from tap water & purchase a new one every trip, discarding the oldest container at the same time.

Three crates tied down behind the front seats gives me an extra 60L of drinking water. I remove the second & third rows of seats to compensate for the weight factor.

Edit .. Oops. The WW containers are 10L not 5L as initially quoted.

-- Edited by Cupie on Friday 4th of January 2019 01:43:50 PM

Meredith · Senior Member

I can't imagine using grey water for showers. Caravan toilets only take a tiny amount of water, in fact when really trying to conserve water we don't flush it at all, just keep a small spray bottle with a mix of detergent and water in it for spraying down and then clean with brush if needed.

LLD · Guru

I was asking if there is a way of "cleaning/filtering" grey water for re-use. As Kebbin said, reverse osmosis is not one of them. At this point I am basically doing what Cupie does but I'm using 2L cordial or lemonade bottles and topping up regularly. Think I may stick with that plan.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Leo, I offer the following from a very quick bit of research through my friend, Mr Google.

The following is from this site - http://www.yourhome.gov.au/water/wastewater-reuse - (although it would be wise to read the whole article)

Two types of wastewater are created in a home: greywater and blackwater.

Greywater is wastewater from non-toilet plumbing fixtures such as showers, basins and taps.

Blackwater is water that has been mixed with waste from the toilet. Because of the potential for contamination by pathogens and grease, water from kitchens and dishwashers should be excluded from greywater and considered as blackwater.

A greywater treatment and disinfection system, approved in your state, must be installed to reuse greywater indoors for toilet flushing and clothes washing. These systems give a suitable level of treatment and meet local regulations.

NOTE: Wastewater from the kitchen sink and dishwasher can be classed as greywater but requires more complex treatment before reuse. Many states in Australia do not allow water from kitchens to be included in greywater for reuse, and permit greywater only from showers, hand basins and laundries.

Judging from the information within that site, it would seem to be an incredible lot of work to recycle grey water in a caravan.

Cheers - John

LLD · Guru

John.

I am convinced not to look any further.

I was informed by a Kiwi that its the water from the kitchen sink that is the reason all RVs in NZ have to be self-contained. It would appear that sink water is black, not grey.

In the years of previous droughts we only used washing machine water on the garden and grass at home.

PeterD · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
Leo, I offer the following from a very quick bit of research through my friend, Mr Google.
The following is from this site - http://www.yourhome.gov.au/water/wastewater-reuse - (although it would be wise to read the whole article)
Two types of wastewater are created in a home: greywater and blackwater.
Greywater is wastewater from non-toilet plumbing fixtures such as showers, basins and taps.
Blackwater is water that has been mixed with waste from the toilet. Because of the potential for contamination by pathogens and grease, water from kitchens and dishwashers should be excluded from greywater and considered as blackwater.
A greywater treatment and disinfection system, approved in your state, must be installed to reuse greywater indoors for toilet flushing and clothes washing. These systems give a suitable level of treatment and meet local regulations.

Adding a little more to what John has said, most of the articles on the web are based on the home situation. In the home situation we use copious quantities of water. In our caravans we attempt to limit the use of fresh water and use far less than water than we do at home. We flush far more water down the waste systems and thus the grey water from our caravans is far more concentrated than our grey water at home. Also when we are away from town water supplies our grey water is likely contain a higher level of contaminants over all than when camped in a caravan park. We should thus reconsider our attitudes to grey water disposal when we are out and about where sullage disposal is not available on our camping site.

Lanfax Laboratories have issued papers on the subject of grey water. They discuss the home situation in their paper DOMESTIC GREYWATER and for caravan they discuss the subject in GREYWATER FROM CARAVANS. I urge you to think or the differences when you dispose your water whilst camping.

dieseltojo · Senior Member

Apart from the sound reasoning of the answers given; I reckon any method of pumping the grey back to the wc is going to give you problems with soap and fats etc in the pump and lines.

Not saying that you could not have the shower run into a separate bucket say and then used the same day in a WC, but then expect to use more soap and water to clean the WC...if you get my drift.

Then you can dump the tank into a sewer dump point, but soap may affect a septic system. I reckon it might average out to be a moot exerciser in the ling run in any case. smile

But then we had a thread here where some happy campers on this forum thought that some one emptying the tank onto a paved road way was no problem, so it depends on the folk you talk to. biggrin