Please Help! HOW is toilet water recycled in the process of recycling toilet water for drinking water?

Question

Can someone please explain the process!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Essentially what happens is that when you flush your toilet, the water and whatever flushes with it goes down below your house. Now what happens from there depends upon where you live. If you live in the country, the water goes into a septic tank somewhere in your yard, where the heavy stuff settles to the bottom of a tank, bacteria eat the waste in the water, and then the wastewater is slowly released into the aquifer around your house. Once inside the aquifer, the water is further purified by the particles in the ground, and by various bacteria in the ground. Septic tanks will fill with solids from time to time; at this point you'll call a company that will clean out your septic tank. This process recycles the water, in that somebody will have a well in the ground that removes water from the same aquifer you are sticking your wastewater into.

Now if you live in the city, things are slightly different. Here, your waste goes to a really big septic tank operated by the city. Essentially the city water treatment plant will have

1) a filter, to get rid of the large, sludgy things, and

2) a biological tank, where biological organisms (bacteria) break up whatever the filter didn't catch. Typically this tank has some sort of mixing aparatus to keep enough oxygen in the tank for the biological organisms.

Just like the septic tank, from time to time the city has the solids removed from the system.

Now from there, where the water goes depends upon how desperate your city is for water. Some treatment plants discharge treated water into waterways like a river. Other treatment plants discharge water into underground aquifers. Some plants discharge water as non-potable irrigation water that might be used by golf courses or power plants. These are the most popular ways to discharge treated wastewater, because they don't require significantly more treatment. The cheapest is aquifer discharge, the most expensive is probably the river discharge.

Some cities require the water for potable (drinking) purposes, however, and they'll treat it further to remove all contaminants. This is called polishing. Polishing typically gets very expensive and may involve improved (more expensive) filters and electrical processes - one example of an improved filter is activated charcoal which is the same stuff you might use in a fish tank filter. There are also clay filters; both types of filters must be renewed continually. Again, this is a rather expensive process.

After they get the contaminants out of the water, they'll treat it chemically to remove all bacteria. After this they'll run multiple tests on the water to ensure that the filters are working properly. After that, you can drink it, but this is a more expensive process then simply pulling it from a well or resevoir.

Answer 2

Recycled water is cleaned wastewater from homes and businesses. Water from sinks, (TOILETS) and indoor plumbing goes to a treatment facility. Advanced treatment processes are used to remove bacteria and pollutants. Treated wastewater undergoes extensive testing to ensure that it meets strict standards so we can reuse again.