Health Issues

Greywater recycling is a safe and healthy way to handle some of the problems relating to the overconsumption of water, but only if properly implemented. Whilegreywater is far less of a health threat than sewage or blackwater, care must be taken in the handling of greywater to prevent potential health complications. Greywater, by definition, does not contain any human waste, which is a large component in the reduced risk that it poses during recycling, but it does have contaminants that could make it dangerous if improperly handled.

The most important component in safely implementing any greywater recycling effort is understanding the causes for the health risk. Greywater, like any standing water with biological contaminants, can become a breeding ground for bacteria. Depending on the water usage profile of a given house, this can create a dangerous situation, but exercising your common sense will let you avoid any serious problems.

Careful Handling

The major danger from greywater is direct exposure to to any pathogens or contaminants in the water. This risk can be mitigated or eliminated with proper care in the construction of the sequestration plumbing and consistent labeling of what water is from potable sources and what comes from the recycling system. This also applies to outdoor water usage, especially as one of the major uses of greywater is for irrigation. And because of the potential for infection, greywater used for irrigation should never be applied to gardens containing edible plants.

Saturation

Greywater buildup can be a cause of worry if wastewater discharge is not taken into account in the design of a recycling system. While irrigation and other external uses of greywater can handle a great deal of water discharge, a properly designed system will have provisions for high volume discharge (i.e. the release of water from several water intensive appliances at once) that allow for the gradual discharge of water underground. This prevents over saturation of soils with greywater, which can be a health threat as well as a source of odor.

Purification

Depending on the volume of water a home generates, the climate and the local soil structure, greywater recycling systems including one or more filtration components like artificial wetlands, lava filters or sand traps, can reduce or eliminate contamination concerns by purifying greywater. This turns a given property into an environmentally friendly water treatment center while totally obviating most of the concerns relating to water contamination. As long as the greywater input into the filtration system is properly labeled and installed, purification reduces essentially all of the health risks related to greywater.