Waste management
In order to make sure that we live in a sustainable fashion, it makes sense to make sure that the waste we produce is reused whenever possible. For that reason, we invested considerable time and effort into establishing a waste management system that ensures our grey water (drainage from baths, showers, sinks etc) and black water (sewage) can be processed on-site, providing us with useful fertiliser (and, in time, energy) while returning clean, usable water to the land we live on to help it continue to provide food for us.
Biodigester
To begin with, the waste is pumped into our biodigester where it is treated with bacteria through a number of different stages. The sludge is removed and mixed with lime to create pellets that we can use to fertilise our fields with, while the water flows through the system becoming ever cleaner, In the future, it will be possible to extract the methane that is produced as a byproduct using our biodigester.
Flow forms
These water features take the water that has emerged from the biodigester, and allow it to be reoxygenated as it flows through the swirling designs that vortex the water through the system. As well as being functional, the flow forms make for an attractive water feature, and carry the water through to the next stage, the reed bed.
Reed bed
Our reed bed contains a number of different reeds and plants, including papyrus, bullrushes and yellow flag irises. As water flows through the reed bed, it is cleaned even further as they take up any heavy metals or toxins that may be left in it- and by this point it is rich in nutrients and goodness, so will be a valuable resource to the land once it is returned to the watercourse. However, we do not have many households on our site at the moment (just three) so with more households and more waste as a result, we will be able to get even more out of our biodigester.
Visit the reed bed case study page to find out more about how it is working out for us!