Attributes of greywater reuse; well-controlled greywater treatment and user perception

Two separate research questions on greywater were presented; firstly, whether the operation of a commercial greywater system at the University of Reading could provide a continuous supply of suitably treated greywater for potential domestic reuse at the halls of residence; secondly, on the basis that such a suitably treated supply of greywater could be made available to the halls of residence, what user expectations regarding the use of the domestic greywater supplies might be expected. The first research question concerned the quality of greywater that could be produced by commercially available aeration and ultra-filtration greywater units. A greywater treatment process was installed at the School of Construction Management and Engineering, at the University of Reading. The quality of treated greywater produced by the treatment plant was demonstrated to meet the British Standard chemical and microbiological quality standards. Therefore, the greywater supply is expected to be of a suitable quality to be capable of meeting user expectations in the halls of residence. The second research question concerned the characteristics of user expectations. 135 replies were received in response to a greywater questionnaire survey amongst students and researchers living in the University halls of residence. Of these, 95% of respondents fell into four groups; 1) those in support of greywater for all uses, 2) those in suport of greywater for most uses, 3) those in support of greywater for non-drinking uses only; 4) those in support of it “if it is safe to use”. The respondent population of 135 people demonstrated a number of remarkable features, including a general lack of distaste for a domestic greywater supply. This may suggest that environmental awareness has developed since the earliest surveys of the 1970s and the observations of Po et al [11]. Then applying the observations of Kaercher [8], would suggest that the findings of the current study should next be tested in a student population that has daily access to the use of domestic greywater supplies. That might then confirm whether or not any lack of preconceived aversion to greywater could be demonstrated in the daily domestic greywater consumption. Future research will be directed to this question.