Low cost sustainable materials for grey water reclamation

Grey water reclamation is a sustainable solution for managing water shortages. However, grey water contains high levels of detergents, particularly surfactants, which alongside other chemical constituents can pose a serious risk to human health and the environment. Biological treatments are not effective in the treatment of grey water since the detergents inhibit the activities of microorganisms. Chemical treatment options have an impact on public perception and could be cost prohibitive for domestic and small scale reuse applications. In this paper, we review the characterization of the constituents of grey water and the application of various low cost sustainable materials such as zeolite, activated carbon, mussel shells, tyre granules, fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag and silica gel for the treatment and removal of detergent characteristics.