Repurposing greywater has been heavily publicized as being one of the most environmentally-friendly activities for the modern home, but did you know…it’s actually budget-friendly too! Today I want to share with you several ways to save money on your utility bill by learning how to repurpose the greywater generated by your household.
So what is greywater?
Greywater is wastewater that comes from everyday household activities such as washing clothes, bathing, and dish-washing. While this water is by no means safe for consumption, greywater can be safely repurposed for a variety of uses without any special treatment.
However, unless we make an effort to collect it — it will wastefully go to the septic tank or sewer system.
It is also wise to consider the hypothetical case of a drought or water shortage where many areas of our country could be forced under harsh restrictions regarding water usage. And with utility costs the way they are, we all should have plenty of incentive to save money any way we can.
Frugal Ways to Collect Greywater
There are tons of expensive residential greywater systems available commercially. But this frugal family has found a few ways to collect and repupose greywater with the use of a cheap 5 gallon bucket.
To collect our household greywater we…
- place a bucket in the shower. Although it doesn’t collect all of it, we manage to catch quite a bit!
- have removed some of the plumbing and placed a bucket under all the sinks in our house.
- are washing more and more clothes with the use of the Mobile Washer and a bucket.
- use a bucket to scoop out some of the water after a bath.
How to Use Greywater
There are multiple ways to safely use the greywater that we collect throughout the day. On the other hand, there are also a few things that you need to be careful of when repurposing household water.
Greywater Do’s
1. It’s okay if greywater contains small bits of food, dirt, grease, hair, and/or non-toxic household cleaning products.
2. Use greywater to irrigate indoor and outdoor plants.
3. Greywater is primarily used to flush the toilets at our house. By simply pouring a bucket of greywater into the toilet bowl, it flushes without the use of any fresh water.
Greywater Don’ts
1. Water from toilets should never be repurposed — water that has been contaminated by fecal matter is a BIG no, no.
2. Stay away from really, really dirty dishwater when irrigating.
3. It’s super important that nothing toxic goes down the drain when you’re planning to repurpose the water on plants — that means no bleach, no artificial dyes, no bath salts, no shampoos that contain ingredients that you can pronounce, and nothing that contains boron (it’s toxic to plants). To avoid the dangers, use biodegradable soaps. Note: If you question it…use the water to flush the toilet.
4. When using greywater on plants be sure to apply at ground level — never use a sprayer or hose and avoid getting the greywater on the edible parts of the plant.
5. If you use buckets, keep them out of the reach of children and pets.
6. Use the water you collect within 24 hours in order to avoid the spread of bacteria.
A few more things to consider…
1. To drastically reduce the concerns over the presence of chemicals in your greywater — and in your home — switch to natural homemade cleaners for all of your household cleaning needs.
2. It would be wise to check with your local and state government prior to using greywater — and definitely before you set up a greywater system.
So is it worth the effort? On average, greywater makes up approximately 50-80% of the wastewater that leaves our homes. Imagine for a moment how much your water bill would shrink if you could start using that water twice!
Do you repurpose the greywater in your house? Are you interested in it? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences!
Tips for Keeping Backyard Hens
This is one of the most frustrating things around here, the county won’t let you redirect the grey water- legally, it all has to go to the septic. Strangely enough, last July I had breakfast with an EPA representative at a conference. Her speech was primarily about using grey water for the same purposes you mention, to utilize even front yard gardens with prettier vegetables to appease homeowners associations, working with the homeowners associations to get restrictions dropped for clotheslines and gardens, etc. Seems the govt is working against each other, huh?
This is a great idea, as you mention, if you watch what you are putting down the drain.
If you consider to store greywater in open bins oder buckets you have to take the growth of mildew into consideration. Water evaporates and if the rooms are not ventilated good enough and when you live in an area with lots of rain, then don’t keep water in open containers.
Excellent point Eilan! We live in the super dry desert Southwest and mildew isn’t so much an issue. But I did grow up in humid GA, I would definitely have to do things a bit different there 🙂
Any idea how one would go about doing this in a really humid climate? I just checked the weather here in western Oregon and we’re at 100% humidity. Things go bad really quickly if they’re not refrigerated or kept sealed around here, and because of the set up of the roof in our apartment, they were unable to install any ventilation systems in the kitchen or bathroom.
how about a post about easing into gray water use? I couldn’t get my family on board for a massive overhaul but like the thought of trying it out on a smaller scale to “trick” them into playing along 🙂
We started out with a bucket in the shower and scooping out bath water…it was a great way to get the kids and the hubby on board! And, they still love it!
I think this is how I will start, nice and easy lol I did talk my husband into making a rain barrel system this weekend 🙂 This just helps that much more. Thanks!! I absolutely love your site/blog.
Although I do this with a dishpan in my kitchen sink, and collect some in the shower, that’s about all I’m legally able to do, living in a condo. I do collect rainwater in buckets on my semi-private patio and use that to water the few vegetable plants I am able to grow. I live in the city, but my heart is in the country..
Wow Lori! You’re doing a lot! It can be done anywhere…inspiring 🙂
My mom has done this my whole life with the dishwater. She was raised that way because they had a well and had to conserve water. I’ve learned a ton from her.
When we move, I hope to have a rain barrel to help with these types of things….but I likely won’t undo my plumbing….I’m sure the hubby would object. 😉
Stacy, I think I would love your Mom! You’re so blessed to have her 🙂
Perfect timing on this post. We have a sink in our barn that was connected to a holding that had to be crushed and filled when we bought the house. We have been talking about getting the sink up and running again. I will talk to my hubby about putting a bucket under it instead to keep bacteria at bay and to reuse the water to water the plants in the yard. I will also remind him only safe soaps and absolutely no other crap to be used in that sink. I hope he’ll go along with that instead of putting in a new holding tank out there.
Great idea Alison! It works just as well and it’s so much cheaper 🙂
During a severe drought in So. CA, my father rerouted water, using clear plastic tubing, from the kitchen sink drain through the wall, along the side of the house to the front rose garden. He collected all of the laundry water into a series of 33 gallon trash cans fitted with spigots from which he watered his citrus trees. As far as I know he did not get a permit (he has a libertarian streak); in some localities it is (illogically) illegal to divert grey water or even collect rain water. Thanks for your ideas and info.
We use grey water collected from the shower to flush the toilet. Washing up water is used to water outside plants and tubs. We’re on a water meter so every little bit helps to keep the bills down. We live in one of the driest areas in England and the whole of the UK is threatened with drought measures already this year as we’ve had one of the driest winters for a long time. We already have a water butt and another one on the way from our local water authority. We’ll be suing this to water the veggies that we’ll (hopefully) be growing this year.
Sorry, stupid question but when you use the greywater to flush the toilet, do you still depress the handle? Wouldn’t it still fill back up with clean water? Guess I am not doing a very good job visualizing this one, sorry! 🙂
I do collect excess clean water here and there to water plants, but that’s about it for now. 🙂
If you pour the water from a bucket, I find there’s enough pressure to flush the loo so you don’t need to press the handle……saves a lot of clean water.
Never a stupid question Steph 🙂 Like Geraldine said, simply pouring the water from the bucket into the toilet bowl provides enough pressure to flush it! It’s pretty cool!
I think Ill try this once and see how it goes lol
Yes, let me know! 🙂 Thanks all. Steph.
In the bowl or in the tank? I’m fascinated by this!
In the bowl. I keep a bucketing the shower and then use the contents to flush the loo.
Oops, should say bucket IN!
Steph! After researching for an hour, I finally found the answer to your question about the bowl refilling from the tank, and then the tank refilling too — with clean new water! I wasn’t visualizing this right either. I kept thinking I was missing a step. I was! LOL Thus:
When you flush the toilet normally, you press the handle, which lifts the rubber flapper inside the tank, which lets the tank water drain into the bowl, which causes the bowl water to swirl down the drain.
NOW… as Geraldine said, you don’t press the flush handle when you’re doing this “bucket flush.” When you “bucket flush,” the increased pressure caused by the volume of bucket water is what causes the toilet to flush. Since you aren’t pressing the flush handle, the flapper in the tank remains sealed, and the tank water STAYS IN THE TANK without refilling the bowl.
You will have a lower water level all the time in the toilet bowl when you use the “bucket flush” method, but that shouldn’t be a problem if your toilet functions properly. (My toilet is temperamental, and there’s a problem in the pipes somewhere, because it doesn’t fully flush every time. I will still probably have to do a regular flush occasionally since the emptying of the tank adds more water — and more pressure — than just a bucket of water.)
Anyway, I hope this helped out anyone like myself, who was missing a step in the visualization process, and just not seeing HOW this was saving either water OR money! =D
My parents once lived in a little cabin in the Colorado mountains. They had no running or well water, electricity or plumbing. They would take showers at a laundromat in town. Whatever water they had, they had to take to their cabin from town. Every time they used water to wash themselves or do dishes, the water went right back into watering plants. It was fun to see them do this.
I can do it too; it would be pretty simple. We’ll start collecting shower/bath water and use it to flush toilets with. Maybe we’ll have some extra water to water our garden with. This will help offset our summer water costs.
Thank you for the article! We have to shave at least $800 from our monthly budget and this will help. 🙂
Sounds like my family in Fairbanks, although sort of hard to water the plants when it is 50 below ;).
If you re-use the washing machine water that had some vinegar in it. Would that harm your plants?
I honestly never thought of simply removing plumbing and putting a bucket under the sink. That really is clever. Also, I can’t help but think how this eliminates clogged drains. Thanks.
The bucket in the shower is brilliant!! I never even thought of that! I will definitely use this from now on, thank you so much. 🙂
My husband and I were just talking about this exact thing over the weekend. The base charge on our water bill is pretty high with only about $7-$10/month being our actual usage charge. So saving the water for financial reasons isn’t all that motivating, EXCEPT, for the summers. We live in Gulf Coast Texas and have been in a terrible drought combined with one of the hottest summers on record last year and similar predicted for this year. So keeping our garden and lawn alive in the summer takes a lot of additional water since the clouds aren’t providing it. So we plan to use greywater for those hot months when we need to water landscaping in excess.
I am definitely interested and used to be better at collecting some greywater from the shower/tub for flushing toilets…kind of got lazy. Have a friend who recently tried using snow – melted – in her Berkey water filter to save money but there was so much sediment that she stopped. Will send this post to her 🙂
I love that you re-use for the toilet! Brilliant idea! 🙂
I don’t know how applicable these would be in other countries, but maybe they could spark some ideas for other situations.
Here in Japan, people usually wash by taking a bath in the evening. We wash outside the tub, using buckets of water from the tub to rinse the soap and dirt off, then we get into the warm bath. The whole family uses the same bathwater because it stays quite clean. People living on their own even save and reheat the bathwater to use the next day (the baths are connected to the water heater). A room with a sink and site for a washing machine is right next to the bath room. Washing machines here have an extra hose for reaching into the bath to siphon the bathwater for the first wash and rinse rounds.
Another neat item is the toilet tanks. The tank top is usually a small concave sink, and some of the clean water used to fill the tank comes through a small faucet so you can quickly wash your fingers after you flush.
I give it a google +1 for good ideas.
I’ve got a leaky bathroom sink and I’ve been meaning to fix it. I might just stick a bucket under there instead. Then no need to buy the part that I need. Saves money and good for the planet.
It is the time of year when we will soon be digging out those dehumidifiers and a/c units (which act as dehumidifiers). Don’t forget the free water those devices squeeze out of the spring, summer and autumn air. That water is totally safe for plants of all types–indoors or out…
I’m a bit late but I wanted to comment. We do the same by using buckets under our bathroom sinks and in the shower. All those buckets are used to flush the toilets. One more thing that I wanted to bring up. We just turned the water off to our toilet. We use the buckets to flush and use the buckets to pour a little water in the toilet bowl for the next use. We also redid our plumbing for our washer and the kitchen sink and divert all that water outside to our plants. The money saved on not watering the yard and not flushing the toilet is worth it.
Hey, you have a typo in Greywater Don’ts #3, in case you didn’t notice: )
Great article! Thanks!
ahem, sorry, i meant to add:
it says: ingredients that you can pronounce
i think you meant can’t…?
So this seems like a great idea, and I’m not OCD about using “used” water…but…does this water come from water thats flushed down the toilet too? Because, I’d definitely wouldn’t want to use that…
friends i am from india and i have a programme called science congress and this the topic recycle grey water . help me friends to get an answer . i will be greatful to you al
I am new to this but enthusiastic so I have questions. Can you use bathwater with epsom salts in it to water your plants? Seems like the magnesium would be good for them but I am newer to gardening as well and wanted to make sure. I just subscribed to your blog. Love it! Thanks for the good information!
I was reading this and totally agree! It’s amazing how much water we let just run down the drain when we do showers or dishes, even washing hands. My hubby and I were full time RV’ers (living in a RV full time 🙂 for 2 1/2 years. It REALLY stretched us at times.. and we got used to living in a small spaces, sometimes quite cold too! We really learned how important our water source was, and to be careful in using what we had. We had a grey water tank and had to empty it every few days.. or you can just let it drain straight out without containing it. What I wanted to mention was something that is common in RV’s, but could be used easily in a regular bricks and sticks house. Our shower had a handheld shower head, but there was a button on the side that when pushed turned off the water from running but allowed the water to be turned immediately back on as the button is pushed again. In other words get wet, turn it off. Soap up, rinse, turn it off. Wash the hair or condition and then rinse and again off it goes. Because our tanks could fill up fast, we had to be very aware of how much water we were using. Also, our hot water tank was six gallons. It was a good way for me to measure. Even doing dishes was different. I washed all the dishes, set aside and then rinsed at once.. to save water. I’m sure we probably could have saved more on water, but it was strange when eventually moved back to bricks and sticks. I felt like I was in a palace and was spoiled.. and am still very aware of how much water I use when we shower. Thank you for your website! 🙂
Growing up in Japan, we had different bathing rituals. The washing room is separate from the sink and toilet area. We wash thoroughly outside of the tub, then go in the tub just to soak. Nowadays most of the tubs have a filtration system so when the next family member goes in, they press a button to reheat and filter the already full bathtub. After everyone’s done bathing (same day or next morning) mom can hook up a hose (think aquarium hose used to remove water from tank) and uses the water for the initial wash cycle in the washing machine. After all, the clothes are dirty and the leftover bath water is likely still warm. Saved so much water