The Greywater Recycling Initiative*

* Winner of the International Exhibition of Cleantech 2010 Award for Environmental Project of Excellence

Shomera’s Greywater Recycling Initiative is an innovative, cross-sector collaboration of academia, government, business and third sector, aimed at making greywater recycling a reality in Israel’s urban areas.

Far-Reaching Impact
This initiative is designed to provide the necessary know-how, local experience and confidence in the available technologies; and serve as a catalyst for the integration of greywater recycling in large establishments in the Israeli urban environment. The pilot’s findings and subsequent educational campaign are expected to impact decision makers, prospective end users, industry and researchers.

Israel Needs Water!
Israel is in crisis and needs immediate and long term solutions to diminishing supplies of drinking water. While Israel is the current global leader in recycling sewage, so-called black-water, for reuse in agricultural irrigation; it could also recycle greywater, a measure which is currently, virtually nonexistent.

What Is Greywater?
Greywater Recycling is the process of treating water that has been used for domestic purposes,such as bathing, and reusing it to flush toilets and to irrigate lawns. Recycling greywater can save up to 40% of the water consumed in a typical domestic setting.Greywater recycling is growing in popularity in water conscious countries around the globe, such as Australia, the USA, Japan, Germany and the UK.

Water: Into The Future
We are looking to the long term when we promote greywater recycling as a significant conservation measure. It is most economical and practical to integrate greywater recycling systems into new construction and retrofits and therefore, it will take roughly ten to twenty years before we reach the large scale implementation desired. Moreover, if by 2025, 30% of the residential sector in Israel were to recycle its greywater, the water savings are estimated to equal the water consumption of a mid-sized city with approximately 300,000 residents.

Who’s Involved?
Shomera, has joined with experts and authorities in the area of greywater recycling, these include:
􀂃 Dr. Eran Friedler, of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, one of Israel’s leading experts in the field.
􀂃 The Water Authority’s Division of Water Conservation
􀂃 The Health Ministry – Have issued stringent guidelines and are responsible for authorizing greywater recycling facilities. Furthermore, for first time, they have joined aninitiative to examine the viability of greywater recycling.
􀂃 Water Arc – A company specializing in water conservation applications

The Initiative’s Design
Shower water will be recycled and tested at a pilot site, upon meeting required standards it will receive the Health Ministry’s approval for operation. The pilot will be closely controlled by the experts involved, from initial planning and design to completion. The planning phase is almost complete and the implementation phase, about to start, is expected to take a year.
Following will be a separately budgeted demonstration project and educational campaign, inviting target audiences to view the recycling technologies. The cross-sector nature of the collaboration; academia, government, business and third sector means the message will reach a broad range of relevant target audiences.
The Initiative Entails an Additional Educational Bonus: The plan is to conduct the pilot at a mikveh (ritual bath). Conserving water at a mikveh creates an interface between Jewish heritage and environmental sustainability, providing a channel to engage previously unaffiliated population groups with environmental issues and activities.

Project Support
With the planning and design phase having received national and international media exposure, we already see great interest in the initiative by the public, industry and government. As the nature of the pilot is expected to contribute valuable data and make an impact both locally and internationally we anticipate the project will gather momentum and raise further interest as we progress into the implementation phase.

You Can Help!
We are currently looking to raise funds in order to transition from the planning & design phase and move into the pilot’s implementation phase. This project is about looking at the bigger picture, planning ahead and knowing you helped create a sustainable future for Israel.

Fot more information on the Greywater Recycling Initiative and to explore how you might choose to get involved , please contact us at info@shomera.org or call us at  +972-77-5536883.

Thank you..

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