Mike wrote:

In article , swroot
writes

FWIW the smell was that of the finest quality rich black
bottom-of-the-pond sludge. And when we washed the container out (about
once each summer) that's what we found in the bottom of it: lovely black
gunge.
This was just from a household's use I assume?

Yes, specifically the bath waste: two showers/day.



Best advice I can give is to use it as quickly as possible, or find some
way of filtering the organics (soap, dead skin, hair, etc) out before
you store it. I have heard/read of people who feed their grey wastewater
through a reed bed purification system, then into a (presumably large!)
garden pond.
Rather a problem there, in that I am thinking the changing rooms/showers
of a football club :-( I don't see the room for a reed bed or large
pond!

I have seen tv footage of a reedbed filtrations system running through
troughs attached to the exterior of building in Holland(?). But I agree
it's complex. There are people who specialise in this sort of thing.
Before you give up on it completely, I suggest you ask about it on
uk.environment, or perhaps contact some environmental consultants.


We stored ours *briefly* (ie overnight) in a water butt. Leave it two
days and it started to smell. I can't think of any reason that storage
in a sealed tank would prevent the stuff rotting, as I'd guess the
process is anaerobic anyway (Nick?). A sealed tank would mean only you
didn't smell it until it started flowing out onto the garden.

On your information I think I am going to give the 'Grey Water' idea a
miss, but will offer the advice to those who have the final say when it
gets that far. Thanks

It's not a dead loss. Perhaps. You could try to ensure that the grey
waste system is plumbed in such wise that you could divert some of it
directly to a hose/hoses supplying nearby flowerbeds/landscaping. It's
not at all noxious when it's fresh, simply leaves a little bit of dried
grey soap scum on the soil surface if you leave the hose in the same
place for too long.

regards
sarah



--
"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view,
is silence about truth." Aldous Huxley