Do you empty grey water into dump points?
The idea of containing your grey water to put it down a dump point seems completely and utterly illogical to me, and I’ve got a burning question for you. How many people have you seen empty their grey water into a dump point?
We’ve been using dump points for our toilet waste (black water) for years now, and I don’t think I can recall seeing a single person dumping grey water into one (and we’ve spent a lot of time at dump points over the years!). All this push and shove for grey water collection, and caravans getting grey water tanks, and where does it get emptied?
The most common place I see grey water tanks being emptied is on the road, whilst the caravan is driving away from camp. So, do you need a grey water tank?
Grey water should be emptied with common sense
I seriously don’t understand why there’s this big push to contain your grey water. To me, you should be dealing with it sensibly. We’ve written comprehensively about that here – Where can you empty grey water, and genuinely believe the giant push to contain and take your grey water to a dump point (only in a TINY number of places in Australia) is ludicrous.
Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but for your average camp site, its daft.
Use environmentally friendly soaps, and let your grey water out immediately in a sensible location if possible, and if not, tip it on a tree nearby. Containing grey water causes so many other problems.
Anyway, back to the original question; have you ever seen anyone emptying grey water at a dump point? If not (or not many), where’s it going? Isn’t that far worse than letting it out sensibly, before it goes manky and starts turning to black water?
Let us know your thoughts below!
Hey Daniela,
Thanks for your thoughts.
There’s a lot of people who never (or very rarely) go to caravan parks.
I completely agree with being careful to not damage the environment, and it’d be nice to hear from someone in the industry about what damage can actually be caused.
I think letting the grey water out on the road is just a matter of convenience, but the oils can make it slippery for other road users, and its pretty feral driving behind a van with grey water being splashed all over your vehicle.
I guess the point of the post was that there is so much emphasis on ‘responsibly’ emptying your grey water into dump points, and yet no one does it
All the best
Aaron
To your statement of where grey water is going, if we are anything to go by, it is mostly being emptied while at a caravan park. And the only reason why we do rarely empty into dump points is solely the hassle of getting the stupid sullage hose out and connected. I have to find a way to make it attach with camlock fittings. One day!
Apart from that, depending on our use and the environment, we may let it run out on site – where the owner allows it and when we are not close to a waterway, allowing for ground filtering of the water. The other main issue I can see – as you mentioned – are phosphates from various soaps which are very detrimental to many native vegetation. As such grey water can definitely contribute to weeds spreading and displacing natives. There’s probably other effects too but I’m not an expert. As someone very interested in conservation, I do know though that there are many good arguments to try and reduce one’s impact wherever possible. And given that we are out here to enjoy our precious nature, we do whatever we can to not have a negative effect on it.
I believe that’s why people may choose to let off grey water on the roads as well?