Also- when you run water in the tub or sink and are waiting for the hot water to flush through- that's water that you can use. In the summer- rig up a rain barrel on your downspout- can just use a 5 gallon barrel (I water my garden entirely this way). Water from boiling pasta or veggies- throw it in. Fish tank water from water changes.

A compost pile is a mini septic tank above ground, don't worry about it. Is making compost more important than cleaning water?

Before rigging up systems to divert water flow, make sure it's legal to do so. Using greywater is illegal in many areas, including areas where, IMO, it should be encouraged.

bpgreen feels strongly about being legal about greywater, be thoughtful then say the hell with them. Much of greywater law is written to protect special interest and I ignore it all for my personal needs.

Just a thought here, there are a few kinds of all natural dish soap you can buy to wash dishes in. They break down and won't kill your "herd." Shaklee and Seventh Generation both have good products that I have used.

Vicky

I agree with the greywater ideas.

Also, I sometimes do the dishes in one sink of water with no detergent (which goes in the garden) and then in a small amount of soapy water (which goes down the drain.)

Uses less soap and the soapy water lasts longer for the whole batch of dishes and the greywater puts goodies on my garden.

Triclocarbam (the antibactierial in most soaps these days) resists biological degradation. One study puts the percentage that survives wastewater treatment, at 75%. This then goes into our waterways or onto our croplands.

Read the initial post- a dishpan is used. No "diverting system" required there.

Many forward thinking places are encouraging the use of grey water, water used for things other than sanitary disposal, but many places also because of old, outdated ideas still prohibit the recycling of grey water. In some states it will require the legislature to change that states health code.
However, using your dish water to wet your compost pile can be a good use depending on what you use to wash the dishes and how much grease will end up in that water. Small amounts of grease will not be burdensome to the bacteria and small amounts of most detergents will not be burdensome to the bacteria either. If you have less than a cup per gallon it most likely will not pose much of a problem, however a daily dose of used dishwater could easily be too much moisture for your compost, something you want just moist not soaking wet. Use a combination of putting that water on your compost and also in the garden.

Depends what's in the water.
Companies that process large amounts of waste water from industry (food processing plants, etc.) often let it "compost" on its own for a while in storage (sometimes with very fancy tanks) and often oxygenate the water (bubble in some air) so that when it is released it is less harmful and reduces the biological oxygen demand of the water. Here is the web address for On Site Water Treatment magazine which you can read for free online: http://www.onsitewater.com/ow.html

we hand wash and use a regular earth friendly dish detergent, and use rainwater as well so that means we use such a very tiny amount of detergent as well.

and we pour all our dish water on our vege gardens with no adverse effects actually the earth worms seem to like it, and the plants aren't complaining.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Thanks for your input! I think I will divide the dishwater so it is used on my two compost piles, veggies and flowers. I only wash dishes every other day (just one person) so I don't think I will overwhelm any one area. I checked the label on my dish soap, it idicates grease cutting properties, but does not say anti-bacterial.