Motives Behind Domestic Greywater and Rainwater Collection: Evidence from Australia

Policy has traditionally focused on increasing water supply by investing in large scale and centralised projects. However, demand for water can be substantially decreased if households reuse greywater and/or install rainwater tanks. We investigate water use based on an internet survey of 354 households in the Australian Capital Territory and examine the relationship between socio-economic and psychological variables and the likelihood of the garden being irrigated with greywater and/or rainwater. Income, gender, age and education could not differentiate residents’ by such water use. Residents who used tank water on the garden had higher self reported understanding of water supply options. Female participants and lower income residents were more likely to use greywater on their garden. Concerns about water collection and reuse, which have lead to some large scale projects being politically unacceptable, were not found to predict the use of tank water or greywater on the garden. This is a paper from the Socio-Economics and Environment in Discussion working paper series edited by Clive L. Spash which ran from 2007 to 2009. This paper appeared in February 2009 and was later published as: Ryan, Spash and Measham. 2009. ‘Socio-economic and psychological predictors of domestic greywater and rainwater collection: Evidence from Australia’. Journal of Hydrology 379 (1-2): 164-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.10.002.