What Do You Do?

[Miss Wiggle]

??

i know i should be environmentally conscious and not just chuck it down the sink, however we've a v small house with no garden, i can easily take a jug of it and water the house plants with it but it's not even gonna use 1g out of every 10 doing that.

what else can/should be do with the waste?

 

[Redstratplayer1]

drink it it is perfictly healthy

 

[raptorrex]

drink it it is perfictly healthy

? it may do you no harm??? the lack of trace elements means that over time you will be deprived of many basics for life. how would you replace the salts and minerals that you loose when sweating? even the submariners it was designed for dont drink it! well neat anyway.

 

[andywg]

drink it it is perfictly healthy

? it may do you no harm??? the lack of trace elements means that over time you will be deprived of many basics for life. how would you replace the salts and minerals that you loose when sweating? even the submariners it was designed for dont drink it! well neat anyway.

Except the waste water is that which has not passed entirely through the RO system and so is not devoid of all the trace elements and such.

If you can store it, use it for FW water changes.

 

[raptorrex]

true

 

[Chac]

I ice my pavements with it & watch my neigbours fall everywhere

Nah, usually kept for the garden

 

[Miss Wiggle]

drink it it is perfictly healthy

? it may do you no harm??? the lack of trace elements means that over time you will be deprived of many basics for life. how would you replace the salts and minerals that you loose when sweating? even the submariners it was designed for dont drink it! well neat anyway.

Except the waste water is that which has not passed entirely through the RO system and so is not devoid of all the trace elements and such.

If you can store it, use it for FW water changes.

thats what i was hoping to hear, wasn't sure if it could/should be used for our FW tanks..... I'll have a look into how we can store it.... if we just use empty salt drums so long as they're clean and sealed air tight it should be ok. how long do you think it would be ok to be stored for?

also would you still need to dechlorinate it or would it going through the RO unit have done that for you?

 

[Matthew5664]

if you have a old style system of plumbling in your house you could:

Have the RO come of the incomming main, then route the waste to the tank in the loft this way you would be using it for the washing mech, dishwasher, showers, and baths.

The kitchen tap always comes from the main so the drinking water isn't effected.

This system would save alot of water.

If your realy up for a challange then could then plumb the overflow from the tank into a water butt in the garden for the watering of plants then have the butt overflow to a drain.

Man!!! I love plumbing

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if you have a old style system of plumbling in your house you could:

Have the RO come of the incomming main the route the waste to the tank in the loft this way you would be using it for the washing mech, dishwasher, showers, and baths.

The kitchen tap always comes from the main so the drinking water isn't effected.

This system would save alot of water.

If your realy up for a challange then could then plumb the overflow from the tank into a water butt in the garden for the watering of plants then have the butt overflow to a drain.

Man!!! I love plumbing

nah we don't have that sort of plumbing, we just have an instant hot water boiler type jobby.

and no we're not playing with it.... i wouldn't have a clue, and I've had enough phonecalls from Ian telling me the kitchen is 'slightly damp' as it is!

 

[Matthew5664]

"I've had enough phonecalls from Ian telling me the kitchen is 'slightly damp' as it is"

 

[SkiFletch]

I fail to see how chucking it down the sink is environmentally disruptive. Doing so is about as environmentally disruptive as spending an extra 5-10 minutes in the shower. Remember, the water that enters your sewer goes through a complex sewage treatment system and is discharged back into the nearest freshwater source. RO discharge is just tapwater that has a slightly higher mineral content, its not as though its poisonous, etc.

About the only place where I might be concerned about environmental impact would be in south florida where water use of any kind has a drastic impact on the fragile ecosystem of the everglades. Those of us living in the rest of developed britain and america aren't really doing much by putting it back down the drain.

Now economically, it might be different for people as some areas have high water costs, but I unfortunately can't relate.

 

[andywg]

I fail to see how chucking it down the sink is environmentally disruptive. Doing so is about as environmentally disruptive as spending an extra 5-10 minutes in the shower. Remember, the water that enters your sewer goes through a complex sewage treatment system and is discharged back into the nearest freshwater source. RO discharge is just tapwater that has a slightly higher mineral content, its not as though its poisonous, etc.

About the only place where I might be concerned about environmental impact would be in south florida where water use of any kind has a drastic impact on the fragile ecosystem of the everglades. Those of us living in the rest of developed britain and america aren't really doing much by putting it back down the drain.

Now economically, it might be different for people as some areas have high water costs, but I unfortunately can't relate.

It's not the damage of the RO waste water hitting the drains so much as the impact of having to use between 3 and 10 litres of water for just 1 litre of good RO in a country like the UK where most of it is subject to restrictions on water use in one way or another. In the UK water meters are increasingly being used.

Also most UK waste water is treated and released to the rivers/sea and is not recycled so the all the energy used to collect the water, treat it, pump it to your house and then re treat and put back into the environment is for nought.

The fact that Thames Water managed to have over 100 litres per day leak from its pipes for every one of its 8 million customers is neither here nor there

 

[Miss Wiggle]

"I've had enough phonecalls from Ian telling me the kitchen is 'slightly damp' as it is"

The fact that Thames Water managed to have over 100 litres per day leak from its pipes for every one of its 8 million customers is neither here nor there

don't even start me!!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, thats a lot different than the way things are over here . While water meters are commonplace, cost per gallon is cheap in MOST metropolitan areas and little water is wasted around here. Guess its a different perspective.

 

[Matthew5664]

the reson for the water being soooooooo costley in the uk is for the very fact that the piping in the uk is old victorian stuff and the upkeep of these pipes is huge! Cople that with the loss of water because of the leeking and the cost of having to systematicley replace all the old lead with MDPE. Then the lean has to be disposed of properley. All this mounts up.

"don't even start me!!!!! "

Here we go.......................................