How to Recycle Waste Water Using Plants 

As a retired teacher, I have to compliment you on the quality of your diagrams.

As a water engineer and scientist working on optimising nature-based water treatment I approve of this video! 👌 Very clear, factual and good advice. I teach a whole course on this topic at my Uni, but I'll recommend your videos to students for a quick intro into the class. If you ever want to do a video on new water treatment tech such as green walls, living walls, green roofs, please reach out. Happy to give some advice and all the up-to-date research notes.

Back in the mid-2000s, I visited the Ethel M chocolate factory on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Its entire greywater treatment system was contained in a greenhouse-like structure full of various tanks, which in turn were full of algae, bacteria, and plenty of plants, just like in your video here. The factory tour guide told us how the water that came out the far side was as clean as anything that came out of a food grade garden hose, and so they were able to recycle it. (I think they used UV light treatment, too.) The tour guide told us it was one of the first commercially scaled nature-based water treatment systems when it was intalled. That information got me interested in natural filtration of wastewater, which in turn led me to an interest in permaculture, which led me to finding your channel!

Thank you for this great explanation of a "constructed wetland" system. We have had one in the foothills at 7500', outside of Denver, CO for over 28 years. It's basically a combination of the Graywater and Blackwater system you described in the beginning of your video. It was the first residential one in the state and we had to have a special permit from the EPA to build. In fact the EPA came out every month for 2 years to take water samples. We decided to use this system for a couple of reasons. Frist we needed a new system because the one that was original to our property was installed when the house was build in 1965 and was badly failing, i.e. raw effluence was bubbling up in the driveway and we saw the opportunity to replace it with something more eco-friendly. We ran across the designer/engineer at a local home show, we were almost as excited as he was when we found what looked like to us the perfect solution to our needs. We kept trying to find a system that would work on our almost solid granite location. Even though we have 5 acres of land a lot was to steep and the only other alternative was a series of lift stations (very expensive). The wetland fit perfectly in front of our house and the leach field underneath it, something not really needed, but insisted on by the local government and the EPA, "just incase". Well needless to say it has worked perfectly for over 28 years with very little to no maintenance from us. The water is not potable, but according to the 2 years of testing is 98+% bad bacteria free. It also supports a wide verity of local wild life. When I first started writing this I was interrupted by my husband calling me to come see our returning female Bobcat hunting for her dinner in the wetland, probably a mouse? It also supports a rather large amount of deer and wild turkey, and of course birds and squirrels and other smaller creatures, especially during the cold snowy winters we get here, because as I'm sure you know the wetland never freezes and there are always plants down at the water level, about 6-8" under the pea gravel, that grow all year long. We have even grown tomatoes in it during our very short growing season. Sorry for this long post, but I've never meet anyone who has every heard of a system like this, much less seen one. Thanks again for your great video! Christina

I've been on RU-vid for 16 years... And you finally made me do something I never thought I'd do in my life. I liked, I commented, and now I'm subscribed

Could you do a video for cold climates, like climates in the Midwest during the winter months? I'm trying to change my lifestyle and living, so I'm quite new to all of this.

I cannot say enough praise about this video. It shines in every aspect. The presentation graphics are stunning. The information is well delivered, comprehensive and enjoyable. It does exactly as it was intended, making the viewer want to go out and build a system...

I keep adding rainbarrels to my property. Already had the house upgraded with gutters that keep leaves our, just this week I added them to my separate cottage. Quite expensive but that means two more large barrels. When I moved here it was just 1/3 acre of lawn, now it is a certified wildlife habitat. Some of my smaller fruit trees have been droping lots of seeds, it no longer looks like a lot in the middle of town. The number of birds and small animal is also increasing. This is my legacy. I am 77 but I will continue until I drop dead. (Vegetable also, of course.)

The most creative and informative videos on permaculture I’ve seen! I really appreciate what you’re doing.

You can use willow trees to breakdown human waste. I saw a outhouse built where the black water tank is shared with a built in willow Grove. Worked very well, smelled great.

Started watching this channel almost three years ago. Temple Grandin’s interview with Jordan Peterson clued me in on the need for infrastructure workers. Now I have a Class D Water license, about to have my Wastewater license, and still watching this channel for useful, applicable education. Thanks! 👍 👍 The diagrams are truly special.

I want this presenter to explain everything to me. I've learned so much in a few minutes.

Gosh. This presentation system is better than blackboards! We can see everything!

I get the distinct feeling that this sort of eco-watertreatment system only really works in warm climates, where there is no winter and the weather constantly stays above freezing point. Excellent for hot climates which most need and lack water treatment, but limited in usefulness up north.

He is writing and drawing lateral inversely and like a master no word to praise

Your use of diagrams and illustrations to explain water recycling through plants is simply phenomenal! Your efforts are not only educational but also deeply impactful. I believe that each viewer has the potential to be that one person who changes their approach to water usage and recycling after watching your videos. This one person can spark a chain reaction of positive change, ultimately leading to a future where sustainable practices are the norm. Your dedication to making a difference is inspiring, and I'm grateful for the valuable contribution you're making to our planet's well-being. Keep shining your light!

As a gardener, that is soo cool. I will be researching this more so i can implement this.

my fish tank have a aquaponic filter, eats up the fish waste for nutrients an others no chemicals nothing just all natural clear rich water, plants grows amazingly with the right bioload

Years ago now I was working on helping develop an ecovillage. I was designing a waste water system where the greywater would be used to flush toilets. Then the black water was going to go into a septic tank biogas digester. From there I had planned for it to go into a living plant filter system and then into another area where it would get heated by sunlight to turn into steam, seperating out anything remaining and turning a small steam turbine. After it turned the turbine some was supposed to drip down a little to a slanted pipe to exit that segment of the system. My goal was to put the water to work doing a lot of stuff while being cleaned.

We have had a laundry to landscape system for about five or six years. We use Oasis detergent. The fruit trees and perennial plants love this water. We also save our shower warm up water in watering cans. There is no way to hook up our shower and sink water as the pipes are in a cement floor. We do have 3,200 gallons of rain tanks.

Your work & means of presenting are extremely important & I wanted to take the time to appreciate you

Can you do a video on mushroom permaculture? Like shiitake logs, mushroom totems, and wine cap stropharia that break down wood chips into beautiful soil. There are so many kinds of mushrooms that not only taste amazingly like meat, but have amazing health benefits like lions mane and shiitake to name a few.

I wish I was ready to do this myself because your explanations and videos are fantastic. Keep up the good work!

Awesome video Andrew! The quality and energy of your explanation and diagrams make this a joy to watch!

Yes salt is an issue if you have alkaline soil especially. Many forget if you have a water softener that is based on salt this needs to be addressed too. Watershed Mgmt in Tucson is a good source of info on this.

I have a 50ft pothos vine growing out of a 55 gallon angel fish tank. I never have to do water changes. Sometimes I have to add a lot of extra food because the vine is sucking up everything. Great video 👍🏻

I’m going to try this for a filter on my koi pond to help remove particulates and grow different plants with the koi waste

I was looking for this a year ago for an off grid laundry facility. Thanks for making it available.

This type of process is extremely dependent on your climate and the winter season, if you are dealing with frost and a hard winter, this whole setup needs to go in a greenhouse, and so I wonder if we could double down and use the greenhouse for growing food all year too, and what a great subsidiary program to get people to use regenerative zero waste gardening.

One of the best permaculture teachers around, check out his library. Thank you 🙏🍄

was searching for hydroponic farming and randomly found your video and was entertained with your diagrams and clear explanations! here's a sub!

The rest stop on I-89N in VT uses a beautiful eco-machine designed by John Todd that is housed in an attached greenhouse. During the busy Summer months it handles over 3000 flushed per day. If you love this stuff, you're sure to enjoy John Todd's book: Healing Earth.

I was recently watching a sewage video which briefly mentioned artificial wetlands being used. This came right in time, a beautiful introduction to the idea/topic, presentation is truly top notch!

Wow! I did the blackwater system for my greywater! Totally checking all of your material!

I live in Tucson, AZ where grey water systems are actually legal, and a wonderful organization called the Water Management Group (Brad Lancaster is part of this organization) will teach you how to make such systems. I haven't been very sophisticated, I just dug some holes, put in some rocks, and use Oasis Bio Compatible detergent. The result is a huge garden and lots of trees!

Thanks for a concise and straight to the point video, with everything explained in normal language - not all that common on RU-vid! Your drawings are great too - and so is the glass plate you’re drawing on 😁

Great video and very well explained with all the nuances. Simple and loaded with critical information. Sketches are very precise in terms of the intricacies shown, as well as the verbal explanations.

Wonderful artist and scientist! I hope they teach this stuff in schools across the nation!

The way you explain it is just so artistically innovative and very satisfying to watch

These two systems are so awesome! I love that for blackwater you use systems of life that are acid and nitrogen/sulfur living and anerobic bacteria, and the. For grey/soapy water you use high PH absorbing materials like wood chips and perennials. Since shower /laundry and sink water will often have lots of detergents and surfactants, as well as possibly microplastics! If your home wears anything with stretch or polyester/nylons. Thankfully there are fungi that exist that can eat plastic, but I suspect this will be a more pressing problem in the near future, where we will need to find more plastic-breaking fungal and/or bacterial species, and by treating grey water in wood chips, its almost like you are creating an experimental petri dish environment where you just might discover more fungi that can do this, as I imagine SOMETHING will have to use dryer lints that include polyester (and still escape the washer and dryer trap because they are so small) for a food source.

Oye tus dibujos están muy perrones y esa forma de dibujar detrás de un vidrio está muy padre e interesante. Te felicito.

Wow! What a fabulous, clear, and easily understandable presentation, with great diagrams. Plus, it's super relevant to today's water problems. I am so grateful for this, and look forward to implementing this valuable knowledge.

I just learned about this in my Environmental Science course in college, it was fascinating to learn how cleaning water with natural means works

Brilliant work, thank you for teaching this in such a way that it's easily understood

I absolutely loved this! Definitely want to implement this in to my future home.

Such an awesome lecture / tutorial. Immensely valuable knowledge that more people need to hear about, thank you and continue this great work 🙏🏻

This is a whole new level of presentation

I'm in an apartment but it would be cool to be able to implement this somehow even if it was just water from my kitchen sink so that I could water my indoor and deck plants "for free" Really enjoying your videos!

That is some astonishingly good artwork, especially your reverse lettering.

Videos like yours make me so hopeful for the future. I know we can do it. Thank you for bringing me this hope!

Most beautiful and complete display on this topic! Important to understand that the versions presented are particularly well suited for explaining the matter. For real-life applicability in a developmental-aid context more simple and cheap versions are needed and available. They work just as explained.

I do this for all my fish tanks, I use pothos and philodendrons for their extensive root structures and ability to easily grow hydroponically

My goodness, mind blown and perfect timing as I was about to start a project on a water filtration system, using similar but yet different method described here. Lots of great information. thank you

Amazing ideas communicated in a perfectly understandable and inspiring way. Thank you! Will add this to my dream housing situation 😊

Once again, another superb presentation, thanks muchly, extremely appreciated, for the quality of the presentation as much as the content. Even though i live in a city in an apartment block surrounded by other apartment blocks, i took notes & drew pictures.

Thanks for very helpful information. People should be doing this everywhere. First taught to do so to have sure success.

are you drawing on a clear perspex sheet? it is the best presentation I have seen

This is a great video for helping to build natural swimming pools that use plants to keep the water clean. Also can you do a video on the best wetland plants to clean and filter the water. Thanks man.

This is the most simple and clear explanation on the topic. Diagrams and drawings are cool. Really helps to convey the subject. 👍👍

Andrew is a fantastic Teacher. Wow!

uhhh just think of it! that would be the perfect solution for a off grit homestead farm to deal with waste water from toilets, shower, laundry and not have to call the sewage truck to pump out the septic tank. the waste could be stored for about two years to break down and used to spread on the farm field and the water would be cleaned and can be reused for watering the farm fields interesting! would be nice to know how well this would work in a area like alberta / canada

This video earned a sub! Thank you for sharing knowledge in such a well delivered format!

I just started a class on Permaculture design and now I see these videos.

I did this and proved that it worked for my 8th grade science fair project in 1998. I got first place at state. It was a fun experiment. My sister was a high school science teacher and helped me set it up.

You could also integrate a 'clay and carbon filter' by making the soil the water needs to run through high in carbon and clay...

I always flush with washer water that I have caught in plastic totes and buckets.

As a residential plumber, I only collect my shower water. I pump my grey water out of a 30 gallon container. My average shower is about 35 gallons. Low amp pump is drawn from a GFCI outlet. I had a very good lesson with electric flow several years ago. Before I had this GFI outlet I actually received a pretty good tingling sensation when I grabbed the mixer valve handle. I had a bad pump, the water acted as a conductor and went all the way up and through the tub. I threw that pump away and have never had a problem since. I love taking longer showers, California is starting its fifth year and a drought. Knowing that I am watering the pine tree with used water and a small amount of electricity makes my showers more enjoyable. Great video sir!

Wow, your elaborated graphics and clear explanations! I love it, but to realize it? So much space needed!

I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently. I walk by some wetlands on my way to work everyday.. I could see someone combining a lot of these systems depending on what water you are treating. Really interesting topic, thanks!

And could you go more in depth on which products to use in your greywater? Like what ingredients are harmful besides sodium and what percentage actually is too much sodium etc.

This is cool to know about. It's giving me ideas for designing an off grid house that would integrate the process you described of natural filtration into the structure of the house, my hope is that would also help with insulation and help with energy efficiency.

Wow, these illustrations are crazy!

That's one of the best videos I've ever seen! Great content, I didn't know you before but I'm an instant subscriber! Thank you for sharing these informations.

You are an amazing teacher of nature inspired designs. Thank you for the very enlightening lessons. Your diagrams are amazing. Super clear.

That was simply amazing! Such a clear explanation. Thank you, very much.

1:22 "there is like, a party going on" - yep! this is the guy i can understand and learn from, speaking my language!🥳🎉

Is there a way to reduce the amount of cell membrane permeable substances (found in medicines) in black water? In case some visitors where to use my toilet with a black water system and they are taking medication which often might be hard to filter, can the organisms handle these matter? I would love to reuse everything my household produces but I also don‘t want to litter my garden and bring synthetics into the circle. Thanks for your great content.

Excellent video, as always! Thanks for the perfect explanation I can use to demonstrate to our landlord the how and why of dealing with our greywater the right way, rather than just dumping it all out on the ground.

i love this!! so good to see solutions to issues in the world. thoughtful use of people's knowledge and skills for the betterment of all the people. i wish we had more of this in the world. thank you!

What's the proportion of m² of plants to volume/time of treated water? Cool concepts, but how efficient is it to time and to area (or volume)?

Great video! Can you please do a video about gray water systems that would work in cold climates?

Definitely one of the ABSOLUTE BEST videos, out there, on the subject👍 Bookmarked. Thank you

Great lecture! I’ll be sure to turn one of these into a summer project

Thank you for this video. I’ve been thinking about this stuff for years. Do you know of some good resources what aquatic plants to use in a “Living Machine” type system?

This video deserves a Million views, this is very informative and helpful for all humans 🌿

You have given me the idea of a good drain water for my house , thank you! You’re awesome 🤩

Love your videos, your process flows, diagrams and presentation of often complex subjects in a simple to understand way. Brilliant. Subscribed with notification On

How well does this system filter chemicals like medications? Can it fully filter the residual medications from something like depression or anxiety pills left over in urine?

Very interesting, I run aquaponics for gardening. And I'm wondering could you filter grey water through aquaponics, or would the fish muck up the purification? Either way using grey water for food production is probibly better then tossing it down the drain.

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoy your artwork and the way you explain everything so simply. Play through.

I'm going to build three of the branch drain grey water systems (showers, kitchen, laundry) and then I am going to build a garden around them!

Hemp can remove heavy metals and even radiation from water!

Coming from someone on the autism spectrum, you have also reached us in a very descriptive, to the point way. We have a little under an acre, and will see how we can implement this! Thank you so much!

The clear colors as well as articulate images and the sound ques really help retain attention

Very cool stuff. Thanks so much for sharing. I hope I can implement something like this in my house some day.

Always love watching you. You`re just so good at this. Quick question: are there any particularly efficient plants when choosing to plant around grey water installations? Thank you for posting

This is exactly the kind of information I’ve been looking for. In this day and age survivalist skills are getting more relevant all the time. Please keep sharing sustainable ideas and I’ll keep watching 🙂

This was a very interesting concept. I appreciate your visuals, I know you put in some hard work into them drawings. 👍🏼👍🏼

So clear and inciting! Just one thing, out of precaution: when you say "clean", it means cleaner, much cleaner, not drinkable.

This is also good information for recharging Aquifers without contaminating them: my houses septic tank and leech drains were surrounded by trees and had woodland off to one side. The house was so old that we got our tap water from the Aquifer, but we never got sick - definitely not from the tap water anyways. It was only ever the nice clean taste of stone. Sure enough, when the house was sold and we had to move, the inspector tested the aquifer and was impressed with how clean it was - one of the cleanest he's seen apparently. In places like India or busy California, this might not be possible: pesticide runoff and other such chemical waste is indiscriminate. Thus, too much of it damages the integrity of the cellular lifeform ecosystem and leads to water sinking down into the aquifer only partially filtered. This is why ignorance is such a problem and it's why in some places they have to build systems like this specifically rather than encouraging nature. All systems function in equilibrium.