Design
The Wisdom of Wastewater Recycling
With new water-conscious projects, Burbank is becoming a model of water reuse.
Not often enough do cities tell their toilet water how much they love it, how much they need it. According to a recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, 12 billion gallons of municipal wastewater in the U.S. is dumped into an ocean or estuary every day, sent out to sea like so much, well, waste. Once water goes down that little hole in the bottom of the toilet, it's effectively disowned.
This is what makes reclaimed water so romantic. It's increasingly common for cities to reclaim or recycle treated wastewater to water parks or refill groundwater sources. Rather than throwing it away, cities are can tell their toilet water not only to come back, but to stay a while.