Greywater Reuse and Recycling
Greywater is wastewater that comes from the bath, spa, shower, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machine, laundry trough, dishwasher and kitchen sink. Greywater from the kitchen sink is generally not recycled due to the contaminants it contains.
In 2007, the average household produced about 90 kilolitres of recyclable greywater from the bathroom and laundry.
Reusing greywater may involve bucketing or installing a greywater diversion system, which diverts greywater to a subsurface irrigation system, after filtration. Greywater recycling involves installing a system that treats greywater to a quality for other uses such as toilet flushing or sprinkler irrigation.
Both treatment systems need to be approved by the Department of Health. They have published a Code of Practice on the reuse and recycling of greywater, which includes details on how to safely bucket greywater and how to go about safely installing and maintaining an approved greywater system. They also publish a list of all greywater systems approved for use in Western Australia.
Waterwise Rebates for greywater systems were introduced in February 2003 as part of the Waterwise Rebate Program. They currently attract a Government rebate of up to $500. By January 2008 only 144 households had applied for a rebate compared with over 21,000 rebates for garden bores and over 13,000 for rainwater tanks.