Lara Fosbery – Year 12

National Recycling Week

Last week was National Recycling Week, and the Sustainability Committee celebrated by filming a video about the importance of recycling. Check it out if you haven’t seen it! Our other article this week is about water recycling, and by following the Sustainability Instagram account (@sustainabilityemanuel), you can see a post about recycling, as well as other sustainability information and tips. Enjoy!

Water recycling

Water is uniquely important in Australia due to our status as the Earth’s driest inhabited continent, and our country’s reliance on ever decreasing rainfall for most of its drinking water. As the population steadily increases, so too does water demand, consumption and waste, particularly in the cities. However, since 2014 Australia has seen less and less rainfall, with 2019 being a record low nation-wide, particularly in densely populated states like NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT, where 80% of the population lives. The constantly growing need for water places pressure on Australia’s highly valued waterways, and there are several ways to mitigate this.

Types of water and how they’re recycled

Rainwater tanks are an efficient and effective way to make use of water that is otherwise largely wasted. Correctly installed rainwater tanks can provide up to 40% of residential yearly drinking water. Rainwater can also be harvested and used for watering gardens and public green spaces. 

The rainwater that is not caught by tanks or results from particularly heavy rainfall is stormwater, and requires more treatment to recycle and reuse. Less than 5% of stormwater across Australia is effectively utilised and most water supplied to Australian houses is potable, even though less than a third is actually used in the kitchen or bathroom, where it might be ingested. Stormwater recycling plants like The Fitzroy Gardens Stormwater Harvesting System in Melbourne already function incredibly effectively. The Fitzroy Gardens plant catches stormwater, strips it of sand and oils, and then disinfects it, recycling roughly 40 million litres of stormwater every year. The construction of similar stormwater recycling plants in major cities has the potential to save hundreds of billions of litres every year, using water that would otherwise either be wasted or carry harmful pollutants into Australian rivers, lakes and estuaries.

Finally, wastewater, the water contaminated by human use, is generally not used and often released into large bodies of water, polluting oceans and rivers, and potentially compromising the ecosystems it comes into contact with. The treatment and recycling of wastewater has multiple benefits, most notably the availability of the treated water for firefighting, watering gardens and flushing toilets, irrigating public green spaces, and the extraction of nutrients like phosphorous for fertiliser. A growing population increases the demand for food and thus fertiliser to grow it. Treated wastewater can be a valuable source for phosphorous fertiliser, especially as this type of fertiliser is sourced from phosphate rock, a resource that will be depleted within this century. 

So what can you do?

Some people reading this article will be students, without much control over the ways in which their households acquire water. So for individuals without much say, you can help conserve and recycle water by:

• Save up to 12 litres of water every time you brush your teeth by turning off the tap while you brush.
• Take short showers – set a timer to make sure you don’t spend too long in the shower – even decreasing your shower time by a minute will save almost 10 litres!
• If you normally throw away the water you don’t drink from your water bottle at the end of the day, consider instead watering the plants in your garden or around your street.
• Don’t use water to defrost food. Instead just cover it and let it defrost naturally.
• Only water your garden in the early morning or after the sun has set. This way, you’re both minimising the amount of water that evaporates (and is consequently wasted), and making sure your plants aren’t burned by the water on their leaves heating up under the sun.

If you have some more financial independence, you might consider:

• Installing a rainwater tank in your backyard. The tank will catch water that you can use for watering the garden, filling your swimming pool or washing your car. This also helps save on electricity bills! Rainwater tanks can last up to 20 years, and a well maintained rainwater tank can even provide water for drinking and cooking.
• Purchasing a water efficient toilet or shower head. Water efficient toilets work by removing waste with water velocity, rather than water volume. Water efficient shower heads can save more than 63 litres of water during the average 7 minute shower. 
• Always use full loads in your washing machine and dishwasher and if your washing machine has the option, use the lowest amount of water possible for your load.
• Fix the leaky taps in your house. This is relatively cheap, but makes a huge difference. A dripping tap can waste as much as 5,500L per year.

We hope this article was informative, and that you feel equipped to do your part in conserving water! It’s incredibly important in Australia that we watch our water use (and waste), both due to the unique climate and the impact that wasted and contaminated water can have on our beautiful marine eco-systems.