Whats the best way to recycle water in your own homes?

Answer 1

Here are a few things that I've done around my home:

You can re-use it by watering plants with it, washing dishes with it or putting it in your toilet tank to flush the toilet with. This means that LESS ENERGY and RESOURCES are used to "purify" water to drinking quality which you don't intend to drink. Europeans often re-use water.

1.) Attach a garden hose to the washing machine drain. Run the other end of the garden hose out to the flower, vegetable garden or lawn. I use biodegradable soap and when I wash my clothes the water goes right out the hose and does "double duty" by watering my gardens or lawn. The plants appreciate the extra dirt and fertilizer they get from washing machine water, and it reduces the amount of "drinkable water" that I use to water plants. You can do the same thing with water you used to wash dishes with.

2.) Collect rainwater and use it to water outdoors by putting a large plastic trashcan under your downspouts. Drill a hole on the bottom and attach an "off/on" spigot. Attach a garden hose to the spigot. When its been dry for a few days and you need to water, use the rainwater you collected. To prevent mosquito growth, put a couple "feeder goldfish" in the rain barrels to eat the mosquito larvae! To prevent leaves from getting into the water, put a piece of window screen over the top!

Answer 2

It's with your toilet believe it or not. Not recycling but reusing.

If you just pee, leave it. When you need to go #2 you can flush before and after you go.

Also look at putting a weighed bottle in your toilet tank to lessen the amount of water that is used.

But flushing your toilet every time you pee wastes a lot of water, this is just reusing the same water. You can also now get toilets with 2 flushers, one for pee, one for #2.

Another amazing idea is rain barrels. You put them where the gutters from your roof empty out. This will gather up water when it rains. Then you can use this water to water your garden, or lawn, best of all, you're not paying a cent for it, it's free! Sure beats it going down the storm drain.

So those are the easiest ones, rain barrels and proper flushing etiquette. You'll save money on your bill, by not wasting it to flush urine every time, and by not having to pay to water your lawn.

Answer 3

It relies upon on your be attentive to how and centers. Paper is effective of direction, yet probable the only plastic that's functional is polythene, or perhaps then it may prefer to no longer be revealed on. you will be able to desire to do this by potential of compressing all of it right into a mildew and heating it to around a hundred and twenty centigrade in the oven for a mutually as, yet i individually does not have confidence myself. the different recyclable plastics are the two unlikely to be risk-free or could prefer to be heated above a temperature of a enjoyed ones oven. There are some issues that could desire to be recycled in a kiln, yet doing that could desire to probable injury the heating factors.

Answer 4

1. Water your lawn only when it needs it. Step on your grass. If it springs back, when you lift your foot, it doesn't need water. So set your sprinklers for more days in between watering. Saves 750-1,500 gallons per month. Better yet, especially in times of drought, water with a hose.

2. Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints. Saves 20 gallons per day for every leak stopped.

3. Don't run the hose while washing your car. Use a bucket of water and a quick hose rinse at the end. Saves 150 gallons each time. For a two-car family that's up to 1,200 gallons a month.

4. Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors. Saves 500 to 800 gallons per month.

5. Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher. Saves 300 to 800 gallons per month.

6. Shorten your showers. Even a one or two minute reduction can save up to 700 gallons per month.

7. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways and sidewalks. Saves 150 gallons or more each time. At once a week, that's more than 600 gallons a month.

8. Don't use your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket. Saves 400 to 600 gallons per month.

9. Capture tap water. While you wait for hot water to come down the pipes, catch the flow in a watering can to use later on house plants or your garden. Saves 200 to 300 gallons per month.

10. Don't water the sidewalks, driveway or gutter. Adjust your sprinklers so that water lands on your lawn or garden where it belongs--and only there. Saves 500 gallons per month.

Answer 5

1. Catch the water you run while waiting for water to get hot. Use it to flush the toilet or water the garden.
2. Put a couple of buckets in the shower with you. Use the water you catch in the same way as above.

Answer 6

here is a general story for your interest.


EFFICIENT WATER USE

IN THE HOUSE
one can connect the sink straight to the toilet sistern and so use the water twice ,first to have a shave and then to flush the toilet
also if you bend the ball valve you can regulate the level of the sistern

and always have your grey water and black water seperate
so that the sink and shower water goes directly into the garden saving on irregation and at the same time ,making the sewage smaller and easier to deal with ,this also goes and iregates the garden but via a sitern of two compartments and a french drain ,on which you plant trees,

ON THE LAND
economic systems of irregation like drip irregation
and design using a lot of stone walls ,that condense water in the night
and planting leafy plants for the same purpose
building wind breaks ,to counter act the drying effects of the wind and farm towards agro forestal ,using as many trees as posible to limit evaporation .using shade nets before we have tree cover

and use MULCH

by cutting down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall,they will cover the ground and put even more organic matter on top,you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry,and when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.this is the easiest quickest and by far most benificial way(for the quality of you soil)to prepare the land for planting

to prevent weeds from coming all you have to do it turn out the lights,you can even use cardboard or black plastic(this is good for strawberries because they will rot if they touch humid ground,and the bugs can get to them).

mulch is the same principal as compost but it includes the whole garden surface
the top part of the soil where the topsoil is being produced houses a world or microbiotic life.

Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil

the humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the devellopment of worms(their exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together with the mulch produce more topsoil.

the mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surfave if on unprotected land

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and,


WATERHARVESTING

the natural way of nature is to evaporate moisture for clouds and this gets blown to places with less water any way ,what obstruct the clouds from getting to deserts ,tend to be mountains that are in the way,
but generally speaking ,the normal weather patterns spread rain evenly over the planet to balance out the temperatures and humidity.

As far as catching rain is concerned ,we do this all the time ,and have done so already since Babylonian times,and is a part of the more advanced Agriculture,that existed with the Egyptians,Central ,and south American indigenous peoples,and many others ,today we call this water harvesting.

In Permaculture the rule is to harvest water to the point of Zero runoff.
this means that all of the rain that falls on an area is absorbed by the terrain and not a drop leaves it.

by building dams,ponds or swales, with interconecting ditches,
if there are enough of these ;the places ,where before the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,(in a matter of hours or days),It now runs into absorbant dams or swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subteranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.
Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.
And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbant one and turning the area in to a sponge.

in Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence,One can find many remnants of Waterharvesting,such as aquaducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.

in Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.

to find out more about Water harvesting I recomend:
the designers manual by Bil Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])


some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo... Source(s) I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico


http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 7

Use bath water to water outdoor plants...fix leaking faucets...only run the dish washer and washing machines when you have full loads...wash the car on the lawn so the grass gets watered as the car is washed

Answer 8

depends on how extravagant you want to get.
you can actually make a lagoon that purifies your own urine into drinking water if you have the knowledge and will to do so.

Answer 9

We use our gray water to water our outside plants in the summer.

Answer 10

my grandpa used to collect rainwater in buckets and use it in the washing machine. I dont know that your clothes would be too clean though...