Saving Resources With Gray Water Recycling Systems

Gray water is the kind of water which comes out of your shower, sink or washer. It is one of the untapped resources in the conventional home design. Usually this water is wasted, by being sent into the sewage drain; however, this water can be reused for a variety of purposes in which non-potable water is useful.

Typically there are two uses for gray water: irrigating lawns/gardens and flushing toilets. Since most individuals are already doing these things; gray water can replace the need to treat water and sewage, creating a tremendous long-term environmental and economic benefit.

Gray water systems can be installed by individuals without specialized knowledge. The price of systems starts as low as $200 for a very basic system which reuses water from the washing machine for lawn/garden irrigation. Higher end systems filter and/or treat the water for reuse in toilets and other applications which require cleaner water.

How to Implement a Greywater System for Your Garden

Google Tech Talk
May 12, 2010

Presented by Laura Allen and Gregory Bullock.

Laura Allen and Gregory Bullock describe how Greywater can green an increasingly parched California, and what Googlers can do to help. Are there such things as waste, or just resources that are currently misplaced? Greywater (water that comes from sinks, showers, and washing machines) turns wasterwater and its nutrients into irrigation water, saving time, money, and fresh drinking water. Whats more plants love it, especially fruit trees, berries and vines. Last year California rewrote its greywater code, making simple greywater reuse legal and affordable. Learn the why and hows of greywater reuse, and how to transform your household plumbing into a greywater irrigation system.

Laura is a founding member of Greywater Action and has spent a decade exploring low-tech, urban sustainable water solutions. She has a BA in Environmental Science, a teaching credential and a masters in education from New College of CA. She is a co-editor of the anthology Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground. Laura leads classes and workshops on urban ecological sanitation technologies of rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse and composting toilets. Laura also works with the Greywater Alliance to help remove institutional barriers to sustainable water use.

Greg is the founder of Bang for your Green Buck, an environmental enterprise that designs sustainable, productive landscapes that grow food through greywater irrigation and rain harvesting. Having built a successful career as a management consultant principally focused on increasing talent, performance and organizational development within Fortune 500 companies, he decided to leverage these nurturing skills to focus on converting wasteful lawns into orchards and positively addressing the water crisis of California. Greg is a graduate of the first Greywater Installers Certification Course, and is also a sustainable landscaper. He also holds a Masters Degree in Business Strategy and Marketing.

Edible Landscape: Turning Barren Suburban Lawns Into Food and Aesthetic Beauty

When driving through suburban streets, do you ever get the feeling that something isn’t quite right?  Maybe there is something that we can do with our land to make it more than just a place for useless, allergen producing, grasses to grow; but instead a place where we can experience beauty and create a wide variety of fresh foods in the process.  Then it is time we realized that we can have beauty and productivity on our land, it is up to each of us to create it and it isn’t as difficult as you might think. Read the rest of this entry »

The Dangers of Plastic Bags

We really should be proud of ourselves. At this time, there is now an island TWICE the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. Also, plastic particles now outnumber plankton 6 to 1.

It really is pitiful that we have sunk to this level, where wild animals can no longer go about there lives without being constantly bombarded by the plastic bags that we don’t even need to use.

Smithers’ Last Moments

We’re not sure exactly what Smithers got into. This morning we found him laying on the ground, motionless, with his vomit having been flung all over the place. He then began to convulse wildly with seizures.

We took him to the vet, though we were pessimistic about their ability to do anything. Indeed the vet could not do anything about the problem; they were only able to administer drugs.

After the drugs wore off, after we had taken him home, he began to have the seizures again. We realized that nothing could be done, since his neurological hardware had obviously been fried, so we had to put him down.

Here is the last video we took of him tonight:

This is the sort of thing that happens to animals when they get into toxic substances that people carelessly dump into the environment.

The Impact of Biotechnology on the Food Supply

During the last couple of decades, biotechnological innovations were sped through the governments of the world. Anyone in these governments who stood in the way was dismissed from their position.

Monsanto is the company which is chiefly responsible for the changes to our agricultural system. Monsanto has been found to have dumped toxic PCB’s in Anniston, Alabama, USA. a move which cost the company 700 Million dollars in lawsuits. Read the rest of this entry »

The Making of a Completely Self-Sustained Home

Dennis Weaver, the US retired actor, builds himself a mansion made almost entirely from recycled tires and dirt. This is eco-modernization, proving once and for all that eco-friendly design and construction/building does not have to smell or look funny.

In fact, it is cheaper, quicker, easier and safer to construct such an ‘earthship’ than any conventional construction technique! This is eco-rationality in action. Prepare to be amazed.

The EROTIC Process Called Shopping!!!

Sweat Shop Sin!!

Put your HAND around that product!! Do you feel that plastic package? WHEW, do you feel that product?

What Would Jesus Buy

A Sea of Plastic

Paul Goettlich | Living Nutrition

Anyone who gets email has seen the one containing fraudulent predictions of Nostradamus. About four years ago, I received a similarly suspicious email stating that a researcher had found six times more plastic than plankton floating in the middle of the Pacific. This one struck a chord with me because of my knowledge of plastics. I wanted to find out if it was just a prank or, heaven forbid, the truth.

I tracked down the source, which was Captain Charles Moore, the founding director of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF). He sent me a study he coauthored: “A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific central gyre” from Marine Pollution Bulletin[1] — a well-respected, peer reviewed, scientific journal. The study substantiated his claim that “the mass of plastic was approximately six times that of plankton.” A large percentage of that is made up of tiny bits of plastic — called nurdles — that have not yet been made into a product. Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese to use weather control during 2008 Olympics

The Chinese government has finally revealed how they plan on playing God with the weather. They are planning on firing chemical filled rockets into the clouds to disperse any potential storms during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

China to zap rain clouds with rockets

yahoo news

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will fire rockets into the sky to scatter any rain clouds ahead of next year’s Beijing Olympics to ensure perfect weather, state media said on Tuesday.

China has already guaranteed perfect weather for the August 2008 Games, but until now had not said how it would make sure its forecast comes true.

Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Association, announced the decision to use rockets in Beijing on Monday, the China Daily said.

“As summer is a rainy season, this practice will become the focus of the meteorological services for the Games which will be held in the same season next year,” he was quoted as saying.

China’s Olympic hosts fear the normally bone-dry capital’s stormy August weather could put a damper on the Games, and worry that an untimely deluge could affect the opening ceremony on August 8 at the uncovered National Stadium.

Beijing, which is chronically short of water, is well practiced at firing chemical-infused rockets into clouds to prompt a much-needed downpour, but organizers concede rain prevention remains a much tougher prospect.

U.S. Army: Dumping Munitions at Sea

The U.S. Army, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the best way to dispose of its life-eradicating trash is in the world’s oceans. They do all of this despite the fact that such dumping has a major effect on marine wildlife. No real surprises here, however, since they have repeatedly demonstrated that this is what the Army is good at, destroying life in whatever way is convenient.

Munitions Dumping at Sea

C R McClain | Deep Sea News

It is no secret that the U.S. military has used the ocean as trashcan for munitions in the past. Peter discussed at the Old DSN how federal lawmakers were pressing the US Army to reveal everything it knows about a massive international program to dump chemical weapons off homeland and foreign shores. “The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste – either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.” Brian pointed me to the Daily Press’s in depth coverage of this whole issue. Registration is free and only takes a minute or two and is extremely worthwhile. Included at the site are maps of disposal sites (downloadable as pdfs), stories, descriptions of items dumped including nerve and musturd gas, and rather depressing pictures some are below the fold (all from Daily Press). Read the rest of this entry »