What are Purple Pipes and how do they work?
There is a looming scarcity of potable water – water that is safe for drinking.
More and more demands are being placed on water resources and much of that demand is for the production of energy, whether it be hydro-electricity, separating oil from other particulates or extracting natural gas.
On top of that is the issue of lower precipitation and warmer temperatures which combined equal drier and less arable land.
The idea has come to recycle water for purposes that don’t require potable water. One of the big incentives for this is the rising price of water. In some areas of North America, the cost of water has been driven up dramatically over the past twenty years. For example, your average Canadian pays $1.26 per thousand litres, compared to .82 cents for the same volume in 1991.
Communities such as Murrieta, California have decided that if they can use recycled water, their taxpayers can save about $680,000 per year. After consecutive years of drought and purchasing more expensive water, San Diego has installed a water reclamation plant.
It pays to recycle water.
The purpose of purple pipes is to separate water drained from your kitchen sinks and showers to another system where the water can be filtrated and used for irrigating fields or lawns or gardens or air conditioning. This may not sound significant until you consider that more than 40 gallons of water used inside our homes everyday is suitable for re-use.
Purple pipes are PVC pipes that are coloured purple and include the designation “recycled water” in addition to the standard factory labels required by the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The typical codes to look for are PVC C900 or PVC C905.
Who makes Purple Pipes?
There are a growing number of manufacturers who produce Purple Pipes including:
- Certainteed
- Diamond Plastics
- Extrusion Technologies
- IPEX
- Johns-Manville
- North American Pipe
- Pacific Western
- Vinyltech
Where can I find out more?
www.purplepipe.org.au – The Purple Pipe Association – an Australian site with many good tips
www.awwa.org – The American Water Works Association
poliswaterproject.org – good articles on water conservation
