Greywater Recycling

Now that we're living back in my house in Canberra with a reasonable-sized backyard, I'm rebuilding my vegetable garden. Since we're going to have water restrictions for the forseeable future, as a first step I'm recycling the grey water from my washing machine.

Unfortunately, my house was designed by an idiot who neglected to install either a door to the outside or a drain in the floor. Since the house is built of bricks on a concrete slab this makes my options for using grey water one of the following:

Catch the outflow from each wash and rinse cycle (4 per load) in a 20 litre bucket, then lug it down the hall, though the loungeroom, past the dining room, out the back door, across the verandah, and empty it on the garden;

Knock a hole through the laundry wall and feed an outflow hose though it;

Move the washing machine outside onto the verandah for the summer.

I used option 1 last summer, but the idea of doing it again this year didn't appeal to me. Likewise, I was unenthusiastic about putting a hole in my wall. I had a spare washing machine available, so I decided to try option 3.

Because the outflow from the washing machine is quite a bit faster than I like to use when watering my garden, I decided to use a catch tank for each load then water the garden gently out of it. A 140 litre "wheelie bin" is big enough to hold the outflows from a full load of washing (wash + 3 rinses = 110 litres), and by putting a standard garden tap at the bottom I can use my existing garden hose.

We usually do 2 or 3 loads of washing per week, which should cover most of my garden's needs.

It ain't rocket science, but it gets the job done cheaply and save me from having to lug a lot of buckets. ;-)

The "Summer Laundry"	Outflow hose fitted through a hole in the bin lid
Tap fitted to bottom of bin, with standard garden hose click-fitting	Watering the peas with the recycled grey water

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