When most people consider recycling, they commonly consider processed natural resources such as paper, metals, and glass.
However, population increases have placed an increased burden on water supplies in the face of rising industrial and agricultural applications.
While reclaiming drinkable H2O is an extremely expensive and lengthy process, preparing waste water for use as a non-potable source of H2O requires minor treatment and processing.
Examining the benefits of water reclamation is an important part of understanding the long-term benefits of the process.
Protect Sensitive Ecosystems Numerous delicate ecosystems across the country suffer as a result of the diversion of natural water flow for the use in agricultural and industrial endeavors.
However, the H2O quality of the diverted H2O flows is often much higher than necessary for the individual process.
By converting waste-water through on-site treatment, industrial and agricultural demands can be met while allowing natural water flow.
Decrease Discharge Ecological damage most commonly comes in the form of waste-water discharge into oceans, streams, and estuaries damaging the delicate ecological balance of these H2O sources.
Many regions rely on large centralized treatment centers.
Replacing these with smaller, localized recycling centers can help reduce the overall amount of general discharge.
Prevent Pollution While it is obvious that pollutant loadings to specific bodies of water can be decreased by managing the overall level of pollutant discharge, many of these pollutants can also be beneficial to certain industries when recycled, especially in the case of recycled agricultural water.
One of the largest dangers of agricultural waste-water is the damage the increased level of nutrients can do to oceanic ecosystems.
These increased levels of nitrogen lead to phytoplankton bloom and increased growth rates in other forms of algae.
However, when agricultural waste water is recycled, the nitrogen and other nutrients can also be reclaimed.
Energy Conservation An increase in water demand requires the extraction, treatment and transportation of constantly increasing amounts of H2O, requiring a great deal of energy.
Additionally, in the case of local ground water supplies, increased demand decreases the overall amount of available water, which requires an increased amount of energy bring to the surface.
On-site water recycling reduces transportation and extraction energy requirements.
Additionally, not every single agricultural, industrial, or personal process requires the same quality of H2O in order to be effective.
Energy can be easily conserved by tailoring individual H2O treatment levels to meet water quality needs.
While most people are unsure about drinking treated water, regardless of demonstrated water quality, the same reservations are not usually applied to water used to flush a toilet.