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Conserving Water in a Time of Climate Change: What are the Benefits of Using Greywater on Household Gardens

Author(s): Nithya Sunku1, Tara Webster2

1. San Marin High School 2. University of Nevada, Reno

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Summary:
We were curious if there would be any simple way to decrease water use in communities because of the ongoing drought in California. To do this, we would use three different types of greywater, soap water with kitchen contaminants, soap water,…

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We were curious if there would be any simple way to decrease water use in communities because of the ongoing drought in California. To do this, we would use three different types of greywater, soap water with kitchen contaminants, soap water, and regular tap water to see if there would be any difference in the growth of plants. This experiment would tell us whether to use greywater on household plants. If a positive result comes out, people can proceed to use greywater on common household plants to decrease their usage of water. Using six petunias (Petunia axillaris) and six marigolds (Tagetes patula), we charted the growth for three weeks and analyzed the data. I hypothesized that there would be no negative impacts on plant growth if greywater was used. After the first week, I noticed some major growth patterns in plants between each type of water, some of which supported my hypothesis and others that didn’t. In the end, we figured out that dishwater with kitchen contaminants had no negative impact on plant growth.

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Version 1.0 - published on 03 Feb 2023 doi:10.25334/7M38-BH61 - cite this