Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling

by Carol Steinfeld and David Del Porto & 7.75 x 9 • 124 pages • 300+ color photos and diagrams • $24.95 ISBN: 0-9666783-2-X

Imagine a future in which gardens, greenhouses and groves of trees replace sewage outfall pipes and leachfields. Treated sewage fertilizes ecological tree plantations that provide fuel, fiber, construction materials, wildlife habitat and beautiful landscapes. A pig farm's wastewater grows a tree farm instead of polluting a river. A house's wastewater irrigates and fertilizes its surrounding landscape. A planted roof collects and filters rainwater for use in the house. A whole city's wastewater powers its public transit, provides cooking gas, and heats its houses...

That future is here. Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling profiles more than 50 successful ecological wastewater recycling systems that use plants to stabilize, clean, filter and use up wastewater (and its nutrients and carbon) or discharge it to be used again to flush toilets, nourish plants, provide fuel, and more, while sequestering carbon and nitrogen and turning it into valuable products.

More than 50 examples include:

* a wastewater treatment plant that produces fuel for the city's public transit--as well as cooking gas and district heating and cooling

* wastewater treatment that grows biomass that powers a region's homes

* a large regional wastewater-recycling plant that produces effluent so clean it's used to irrigate strawberry plants eaten throughout the U.S.

* a greenhouse-enclosed wastewater aquaculture system--built and run by a community in Pennsylvania--that cleans water that's used again for flushing toilets and watering nursery plants

* a greenhouse-enclosed garden sculpture surrounded by a jungle of vegetation that cleans wastewater generated by a resort

* an indoor planter bed that uses up graywater from sinks and tubs

* a nitrogen-recycling urinal and graywater system that grows breakfast every day

* a small graywater planter bed system that manages water from a washing machine, diverting it from septic systems and creating a landscape feature

* a large treatment wetland that cleans a town's wastewater before it is discharged to the sea---and provides a beautiful wetland habitat park that recreates the historic canyon creek and habitat that existed before the city was built

* a landscape cleans and uses up all of the wastewater from guesthouses at an upscale resort, each featuring microflush toilets, rainwater collection and inexpensive site-built blackwater composters

* a building courtyard filled with ornamental plants that does double duty as a wastewater management system

* an island architect who installs septage-cleaning landscapes at all of the homes he designs

* swimming pools and sculptures that clean water

...and more!

Written for both engineers and non-technical readers, Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Wastewater Recycling features beautiful color photos and inspiring, easy-to-read information that prove that the solution to water pollution is to grow it away!

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$24.95 + free US postage!

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Also available from your local bookstore or from New Society Publishers.