Thread: Grey Water Re-use

My grey water runs out to my neighbor's Naa and his crops are doing fine!

You sure his crops are getting just grey water?

I am not an expert in gardening, But I dont think Detergents and chlorine bleach are good for your plans , and if any of these plants are for your consumption, not good for you either.

^ Do you believe that the chemicals in detergents ends up in the plants?

any links?

^No of course not, the fairies turn them into pretty blue flowers.

Originally Posted by thailazer

You sure his crops are getting just grey water?

Just grey water from me although he (along with every other Chaa Naa) hires boys to spray his field(s) for pests and I'm not too sure those chemicals are good to digest.

Yes been doing this for Years in North Oz, the soaps beak down the clay in the soil, [surface tension] there is a Concern in Oz about the Phosphate in the Powder/Liquid but cheaper Products have less Phosphates

Bleach can destroy the Biological reactions in a Septic Tank, not recommended but must be flushed and diluted.

just remembered, Smiley Man in our Village using ''Human Waste'' from the Local Hospital on his Rice , not exactingly Grey water.
He has to Hire Labor from outside the Village as Locals wont have a thing to do Him.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Originally Posted by thailazer

You sure his crops are getting just grey water?

Just grey water from me although he (along with every other Chaa Naa) hires boys to spray his field(s) for pests and I'm not too sure those chemicals are good to digest.

I can see how the grey water would be good as modern detergents are not that far from fertilizers chemically speaking. As others have said, there may be contaminants but those are hopefully minute quantities. We had some noisy frogs move into our laundry sump. Hopefully they don't have offspring with three eyes.

If you have enough soak - i.e stones and sand, then grey water becomes as good as you drink!

Originally Posted by mingmong

Smiley Man in our Village using ''Human Waste'' from the Local Hospital on his Ric

Most "civilised" countries return the "treated" accumulated solids from the sewer plants to the environment in some way or another - to farmers fields or in pre-packed compost packs to the residential gardener.

Originally Posted by mingmong

Yes been doing this for Years in North Oz, the soaps beak down the clay in the soil, [surface tension] there is a Concern in Oz about the Phosphate in the Powder/Liquid but cheaper Products have less Phosphates

I thought phosphates are god for plants it is waterways they are not good for as they affect BOD so letting them go into the sewers is bad. Putting them on the land is OK.

Originally Posted by Captain Birdseye

If you have enough soak - i.e stones and sand, then grey water becomes as good as you drink!

Idiot!

The detergents in normal washing powder and dish washing liquids will break down quickly, and will not harm your plants or be taken in by the plants.

The worst thing you can do is to use bleach in this environment as it kills the natural bacteria that break all of this down.

Just look at China and Korea, they use human shit and anything else they can find to throw on the veggies - just make sure you wash them else you might get E-coli from a Chinamans arse or a Korean Tampon.

Originally Posted by thailazer

We had a rental house where the laundry water went out into a gutter and the plants around it thrived. With our new house, I plumbed the waste laundry water into a concrete and stone pit on the sunny side of the house. Today we put in a few bird of paradise plants, some ferns, and a broad leaf plant. It seems a good use of water and the soap should decompose faster exposed to the sun. Stand by for reports on either thriving plants or dying plants. Anyone else put their shower, kitchen, or laundry water to use?

Thought I would update this on the little swamp we put in with great hope. It ended up looking like a cess pool so next week I will dig it a bit deeper and put in a few rings with holes, and then trench an undground drainage field. The water from the laundry always had it looking grey and quite "sewer-like" and not many of the plants did very well. We gave it three months and, well, it didn't look any better. Plants around the ring should work out better and still re-use the grey water.

I've just planted some banana and papaya trees round the area where the tanks for sewage and waste water are. They've just went in a couple of weeks ago but they certainly happy to be there - the plan is to use the bananas to make compost for the rest of the garden.

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Originally Posted by thailazer

Originally Posted by thailazer

We had a rental house where the laundry water went out into a gutter and the plants around it thrived. With our new house, I plumbed the waste laundry water into a concrete and stone pit on the sunny side of the house. Today we put in a few bird of paradise plants, some ferns, and a broad leaf plant. It seems a good use of water and the soap should decompose faster exposed to the sun. Stand by for reports on either thriving plants or dying plants. Anyone else put their shower, kitchen, or laundry water to use?

Thought I would update this on the little swamp we put in with great hope. It ended up looking like a cess pool so next week I will dig it a bit deeper and put in a few rings with holes, and then trench an undground drainage field. The water from the laundry always had it looking grey and quite "sewer-like" and not many of the plants did very well. We gave it three months and, well, it didn't look any better. Plants around the ring should work out better and still re-use the grey water.

As you built a tank probably no natural system to break down the water. Phospates in laundry detergent should be good for plants. The other way would be some form of gravel bed, similar idea to the plastic balls used in fish tank filters, large surface area for bacteria to get to work.
Don't forget no bleach in the washing machine. That maybe where the whole thing is going wrong.

It was a rock wall on one side and then just a big pit with mud and gravel for sides. Big enough that we could do several loads of laundry with no overflow, and it would slowly soak into the ground over several hours. We don't use any bleach so it was just the detergent and water from the machine. I think letting it soak into the soil out of sight is a much better idea.

Oh.. regarding Banana trees, be aware that their root system will go inside drain pipes and eventually plug them up. A friend just had this problem happen last week and had to dig up the pipes and actually replace them as they were so packed.

There is a large soak away system in India where effluent rather than discharge it into a river. They created a whole ecosystem. Not the same but you could create a small one?

Did the same thing with our grey water from the washing machine in San Diego. Had a hose hooked up to it and moved it around the back yard and had a nice green lawn all year long.

Thinking this might actually be an interesting thread it instead was only good for a laugh. Frankly speaking someone hears about greywater, sticks out a pipe and watches it go wrong as people chime in with the most dubious insights. Folks, we live in the 21st century. There is a goldmine of information that is free on building anything you can imagine. While the world goes forward getting better and more refined you choose to go backwards to a primitive, stone age understanding of a flat world. I can only shake my head that whenever people do construction in Thailand of any sort the best they can do is get inspired to dream up something shoddy just like the locals.

This will mostly hit deaf ears, but there appears at least one here that might appreciate how to make a greywater wetland that is safe, effective, cheap, easy to build, mosquito proof, and odorless among other benefits:

Frog Watch > Features > Household greywater wetlands

It really would be nice if this were the starting point of a discussion like this, not something people dream of, but never achieve.

Originally Posted by canopy

Thinking this might actually be an interesting thread it instead was only good for a laugh. Frankly speaking someone hears about greywater, sticks out a pipe and watches it go wrong as people chime in with the most dubious insights. Folks, we live in the 21st century. There is a goldmine of information that is free on building anything you can imagine. While the world goes forward getting better and more refined you choose to go backwards to a primitive, stone age understanding of a flat world. I can only shake my head that whenever people do construction in Thailand of any sort the best they can do is get inspired to dream up something shoddy just like the locals.

This will mostly hit deaf ears, but there appears at least one here that might appreciate how to make a greywater wetland that is safe, effective, cheap, easy to build, mosquito proof, and odorless among other benefits:

Frog Watch > Features > Household greywater wetlands

It really would be nice if this were the starting point of a discussion like this, not something people dream of, but never achieve.

Well, I did do some research and there are limitations with the site. That was one of the reasons to start the thread to see if there were any real experiences out there. It will work out just fine with an underground field for me, but a wee pond with great looking plants IN IT isn't going to work here.