Investigation on reuse potential of laundry water for household garden irrigation in Toowoomba

摘要

As water consumption demands have increased together with shortage in rainfall duringlast few years, the crisis in water supply become apparent in many regions acrossAustralia, including Toowoomba. More efficient use of other resources as valuable aswater should therefore be encouraged. One feasible resource is greywater, which hasbeen reused widely for toilet flushing and garden watering in many nations around theworlds such as Japan, USA, Singapore and Hong Kong. The reuse of greywater inindividual households in Australia can contribute towards the reduction in waterconsumption and wastewater volume discharged into treatment systems. Laundry wateris one of components in greywater which is considered to be less polluted than manyother wastewaters. In addition, laundry water usually contains many essential nutrientsfor plant growth. Therefore, laundry water may be reused for garden irrigation withouttreatment. If feasible, this practice would provide a cost-effective solution to conservewater and improve soil nutrients. This paper focused on determining the quantity andquality of laundry water generated from a Toowoomba household. The results would beused to evaluating the reuse potential of laundry water for lawn and garden irrigationwithout treatment. The impacts of laundry water application on human health and soilproperties were also taken into account in this paper.