Does Reverse Osmosis Filtration waste a lot of water?

Reverse Osmosis water systems work by passing pressurized water through a semi-permeable membrane, so that the permeate water (purified water) is stripped off of almost all the dissolved salts and other impurities, thereby purifying it. The reject water with high concentration of solutes is eliminated. To give you a fair idea of the amounts of water rejected, a typical domestic RO system will generate about 10 gallons of purified water from 40 gallons of raw water – this means 75% of water is rejected.

 

However, “rejected” water may not always mean “wasted” water. The reject water with relatively high concentration of solutes may not be suitable for drinking purposes, but it definitely finds several other uses – this water can be used to wash clothes, to wash dishes, to wash cars, to flush toilets. All you need to do to make good use of the reject water is to connect the reject water pipeline to a suitable reservoir, and use this water. In order to improve the efficiency of RO systems, some very intelligent systems have been introduced to the market that reuse the reject water so that the efficiency of the RO system increases from 25% to 50%. You may opt for such systems if you are conscious about the high proportion of reject water generated from your RO system. There are also RO systems that feature a built in “reject water tank” to hold the reject water. This could be a very practical and handy way to collect the reject water and use it for activities like mopping floors or washing dishes. Such RO systems ensure “zero water wastage”.

RO is a revolutionary concept in the field of water purification. It ensures contaminant-free, pure water for your family, and at very affordable costs. If you are worried about an increase in your water bills because of the lower efficiency of RO systems, rest assured, the system does not use enough water to show up in your water bill. After all, how much water does one consume in a day? If you buy a 10 gallons per day (GPD) system, the total water used by this system would be only 40 gallons. If you hold an eco-friendly perspective and are worried about water being wasted, you still need not worry about the water efficiency of such systems, since with little effort, you can use the reject water and make your own little contributions towards saving water.

Get yourself an RO system, and ensure good health for you and your family, without worrying about water wastage.