Where I live at the moment it's very dry and our water supply comes directly from rain water. To conserve water to feed our plants and vegetable garden where we can, we have buckets in each of our sinks, that once filled are emptied in the appropriate place. It's a helpful system, but the buckets aren't so user friendly.

I propose a strong clear plastic insert that lines the inside of your kitchen or bathroom sink. Imagine you are about to do something that requires your sink to be filled such as washing the dishes, cleaning a shirt, or even with multiple uses of washing hands over a short period of time - say a day or two depending on the size of your sink. The dirty water that would otherwise go into the drain can be collected in this plastic insert. To remove from the sink, grap the edges and bring together at the top and take it outside to water your plants.

At the base, where the sink plug is, is a twist plug that when turned releases the water contained inside. This plug can be left open in the sink if your amount of water usage is inconvenient to warrant taking loads of water outside every time it fills up.

I guess this would only benefit people who have a need to recycle water (which is a growing concern worldwide) and who have a gardens/plants that need water.
-- benfrost, Oct 12 2004

Lots of info on grey water systems http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/
[scad mientist, Oct 12 2004]

I don't get it [benfrost].. where's the gross-out angle ?

I wonder whether you couldn't put a joint under the sink before the U-bend, where you can optionally 'switch' the water outflow to the outside world e.g. to the garden/to a tank etc, it would look a bit nicer than a plastic sink thing, and the default could be to recycle all the water, rather than to wash all the water away.
-- neilp, Oct 12 2004


You just designed a very cheap grey water system. More advanced systems will eliminate the inconvenience of carrying your water outside by connecting the drain from the sink, dishwasher, washing machine, and shower directly to the grey water system. Only the drain from the toilet needs to go into the sewer or septic tank.
-- scad mientist, Oct 12 2004



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