Will small amounts of non-biodegradable soap destroy my living gray water system?

Hello friends!

So I'm just about to acquire a small plot of land with an area of 407 square meters.
I'll have to borrow some family money to be able to buy it... so in order to pay that back I will create a little permaculture AirBnB project with a couple of "glamping" structures and shared kitchen/shower/laundry facilities... and a composting toilet

I'm starting to design the grey water treatment system with aquatic plants in a gravel pond, grease trap and all that good stuff.
And I will provide biodegradable soaps for guests to use.. Will also put up signs saying things like "please use bio-degradable soaps only. Our plants are fed with your waste water" or such..


BUT
Since there's gonna be loads of people going through the place in 1 year, I'm afraid that a considerable percentage of them will ignore the indications and stick to their own (non-biodegradable) shampoo/bodywash just because they like the smell or whatever.

So I'm having second thoughts and I want to ask:

What is the worst thing that can happen if, say 15% of the water that goes into the system, is coming with with toxic cleaning products?
Would it ruin the whole system, kill the microbes and create irreparable damage to my soil further down where I use it for irrigation ?

Or would it just make things slower and smellier, with damage that can be made up for overtime?

I also thought that during those first 1 or 2 years of AirBnB I can just dispose of it in the sewer like normal peepz do .. to avoid damaging my soil. And then when I have payed my debt I can shift away from being a host and do my thing, having more certainty of what actually goes into the water.

I'm eager to hear your feedback!

Unless folks, where you are located, are more considerate and sustainable my answer will be that folks pay no attention to signs.

We have an Airbnb here in Texas.  Here are some examples:

During the coldest week of the year, we had folks who were told several times "Do not turn off the heat".

We can monitor the temps remotely which said the temps were way below freezing.

A trip had to be made for thousands of miles to repair the damage.

We use rainwater catchment and have signs that warn people to use water sparingly.  We continually get calls that someone ran out of water.

We use solar so folks can sleep with A/C at night during the summer heat.  We continually get calls that folks ran out of power.

Will they use the soap you furnish?  Probably not though they will take it home with them.

I also feel you might have problems getting folks to use a composting toilet unless it works like a real toilet.

Pablo said, "I also thought that during those first 1 or 2 years of AirBnB I can just dispose of it in the sewer like normal peepz do .. to avoid damaging my soil.

Sounds like a good plan.

I hope other folks will have some better stories than I did.

Anne Miller wrote:Unless folks, where you are located, are more considerate and sustainable my answer will be that folks pay no attention to signs.

We have an Airbnb here in Texas.  Here are some examples:

During the coldest week of the year, we had folks who were told several times "Do not turn off the heat".

We can monitor the temps remotely which said the temps were way below freezing.

A trip had to be made for thousands of miles to repair the damage.

We use rainwater catchment and have signs that warn people to use water sparingly.  We continually get calls that someone ran out of water.

We use solar so folks can sleep with A/C at night during the summer heat.  We continually get calls that folks ran out of power.

Will they use the soap you furnish?  Probably not though they will take it home with them.

I also feel you might have problems getting folks to use a composting toilet unless it works like a real toilet.

Pablo said, "I also thought that during those first 1 or 2 years of AirBnB I can just dispose of it in the sewer like normal peepz do .. to avoid damaging my soil.

Sounds like a good plan.

I hope other folks will have some better stories than I did.

Pablo, I agree with Anne, that you can only expect so much from strangers renting your place. I think you could try to educate them about your plan, you might leave healthier products to use that they could try, but don't expect the world of them. You might create your system to have a selector valve to drain to sewer or to gray water system, so that you could use it your way for yourself, and leave it on the sewer for renters.

Anne, your situation seems like an endorsement for internet-enabled home automation if there ever was one! There may be some other older, offline stuff that you could do as well, such as two thermostats, one that is locked in a case (often in commercial/office settings) to provide the minimum heat; and another that could be adjusted for their comfort, and no way for them to switch it OFF completely. It might mean going so far as a locked area with the switch or a subpanel (so they didn't go shut the circuit off!)

Also, for anyone, a more relatable experience based description? "Use the water sparingly" obviously leaves a lot of room for interpretation, where "two 5 minute showers, every other day", and "one wash tub, one rinse tub for doing dishes, once a day", and "If it's yellow be mellow, if it's brown flush it down!" paints a clear picture of how to accomplish the goal.

Anne, you have brought up memories of 'dumb humans'.
I have seen;
- composting toilets used without opening the flap!
- heat adjustment turned up so they dont need jumpers
- 20 minute showers
- complete inability to recycle anything.
- 200 Kg of wood used in 2 nights
- doors open heater on!
But I have seen solutions for many problems.
- Toilet changed so there was no manual flap $1000
- Kenneths solution sounds great but I would not allow any adjustment
- supply a fixed amount of firewood, 10 KG
- There is a device for limiting showers to 3 mins.
- door closers fitted

https://www.showertimer.com.au/domestic-vs-commercial-comparison/
https://showersavingtimer.com/products/showerwizard-1
https://www.smarthomeperfected.com/best-shower-timer-shutoff/

What makes you think that some people will use only "small amounts of non-bio soap"? Some people are addicted to using large amounts of all sorts of really nasty stuff. Someday, someone is going to come and bite your system.

But one thing you could try, is to list in your advertisements that your facility is for health conscience, earth conscience people only. Maybe something like ~~"No chemical use allowed on premises. This includes cleansers, body washes, artificially scented soaps, etc. Use of such products will result in additional charge. A wonderful selection of all natural soaps and shampoos will be provided on request."

I really like the idea of some sort of diversion so that when other people are there, the water is diverted. If you can send it to the sewer until you notice things are established, I think that's a good solution.

I've visited places where there aren't lots of "green" options, and it's totally normal for people to do their laundry with commercial soap and it goes into banana groves and homemade effluent treatment zones. I don't think it would be the end of the world, but I'm no expert, and also that's not ponds with wildlife.
What worries me more is looking for soap in the grocery store and having a hard time finding an option that doesn't flaunt its antibacterial capabilities. People seem to be using that stuff like nuts, even though I wouldn't touch it with a pole. i don't know what that does to a graywater setup or a pond.
I also know a lot of people travel with their own products (I certainly do when I go to an airbnb), and we all know that nobody reads anything (or reads and complies, anyway).

Nice, thanks for your replies!

That's quite a healthy dose of reality for my expectations.
Fortunately the piece of land is located in a small town where most of the tourists come because they're already interested in appreciating / protecting nature.
Eco-Tourism is the main economic driving force in the area since there's a very unique ecosystem (Cloud Forest) a bit higher up in the mountain.

So my hope is that this profile of visitors will be a bit more open to adapting their behavior with nature's benefit in mind.
But that's kinda wishful thinking to some extent hahaha ... I'll see how that goes

But I will follow your advice on creating a diversion system with the valves, sounds like a really good approach. I could just switch it back it whenever I'm alone there or when It's low season.

I will be sharing the common areas / garden with the guests on a daily basis so I think I won't  be dealing with most of the problems that remote AirBnB'ers have in terms of people abusing their trust and such

Tereza Okava wrote:I really like the idea of some sort of diversion so that when other people are there, the water is diverted. If you can send it to the sewer until you notice things are established, I think that's a good solution.

Personally I think nearly every greywater setup should have a 3 way valve in there. The two major reasons I see are cold months (depending on climate) and wanting to use harsher chemicals. We get a lot of snow here, enough to cover the first floor of the house, so having the mulch basin or whatever is a non starter in winter time. The water pools up, ices, and backs up. It simply has to go somewhere where it can flow or where it can percolate into the soil below the frost line.

The other one is bleach or things like soft scrub. I'm all about using the best cleaners we can that work with greywater, it's exclusively oasys and dr bronners around here. But funk builds up over time in a shower and it's hard to beat a scrub brush and a bleach based cleaner. It's only every few months but it's the difference between a clean and gross shower.

For both of those, the cold and the harsh cleaners, it's very nice to be able to flip a valve and keep that out of the main greywater destinations.

So when you flip the valve and divert grey watert out of the grey water system, where does it go?
Also, what is this mean?
"it's exclusively oasys and dr bronners around here. "

John C Daley wrote:So when you flip the valve and divert grey watert out of the grey water system, where does it go?
Also, what is this mean?
"it's exclusively oasys and dr bronners around here. "

Sorry for the delay. So the grey water in the winter goes to a different infiltration chamber system. We purchased extra chambers when we put the septic in. Gray water goes out two sides of the house, and sort-of-not-really near their regular outputs are infiltration chambers, these kind: https://www.infiltratorwater.com/products/chambers/ . Three feet down to stay below the frost depth and 16 feet long. It was really back of the envelope math for me but I wanted something that could keep up with a shower and a clothes water on one side of the house and just a shower on the other side.

And the soap comment is that the only soaps we try to use that go to the gray water are those I listed. The oasys is actually used in the sink too even though that goes to septic, just to reduce the amount of soaps we're using. Crate 61 is a manufacturer of a sodium free soap as well. We're in a pretty arid place so I try hard to keep salt out. Showers have salt from the skin and from urine (I think everyone, or at least everyone I know, pees in the shower). But regardless I try to keep the sodium down as much as I can.

Howdy,

Check out Art Ludwig,

https://oasisdesign.net/greywater/createanoasis/

and these 2 cities, Cannon Beach, Oregon, and Arcata, Calif, coastal cities, with greywater lagoons.

https://depts.washington.edu/dislc/BlackWaterWetlands/case.htm