Region of Waterloo looks to the future with new greywater pilot
The Region of Waterloo has launched an innovative pilot program to save water by reusing greywater in newly-built homes.
If you haven’t heard of recycling greywater, that’s because it’s relatively unknown in North America. Greywater is the wastewater created in your home by sinks, showers, washing machines, etc. Usually it goes down the drain to our community’s wastewater treatment plants.
With the Region of Waterloo’s pilot program, however, water from showers is sent to a system installed in the basement. The water is treated so it can be used again to flush toilets. This greywater treatment technology is created by a company called Hydraloop.
“This pilot program is the first of its kind in North America,” said Water Programs Supervisor Dan Meagher. “The Region of Waterloo has been a leader and innovator in water conservation for decades, and we’re proud to break new ground again by launching this new research program.”
The pilot program will collect data from the greywater units in four newly-built homes in Activa’s Trussler West neighbourhood. The Region of Waterloo bought the systems and will analyze water savings for two years to see how well this technology performs.
This new project is part of the Region of Waterloo’s larger work to conserve water, guided by our Water Supply Strategy. Our community is unique because we draw most of our drinking water from groundwater. The Water Supply Strategy is how we plan ahead and make sure we have enough of this critical resource today and tomorrow.
“The Water Supply Strategy isn’t just about finding new sources of water for our growing population, it’s also about finding efficiencies that will help manage or even reduce the amount of water that a family or household would need,” said Meagher.
For more information on the greywater pilot program, please contact the Water Programs team at watercycle@regionofwaterloo.ca.