Loop — Recycle
How does my Ark eliminate waste?
The Grey Line
A household greywater capture and redistribution system that routes sink, shower, and laundry water through simple gravity-fed filtration and delivers it to garden, orchard, or pasture irrigation. Closes the household's highest-volume waste stream and turns it into the second-largest water input to the Grow domain (after rain). For a 4-person household using 50 gal/person/day, The Grey Line captures and redirects 50–100+ gallons per day of usable irrigation water — enough to supply 30–70% of a household garden's needs in most climates. The rig's real value is not the water saved on the bill; it is the resilience added when the municipal supply fails, the well runs low in August, or the fire-season drought drags into a third month. The greywater you've been routing to perennials all summer keeps those perennials alive when the irrigation budget collapses. The mental shift this rig demands: stop seeing your drains as the end of the water cycle, and start seeing them as the beginning of the next one. The freshwater that came in through the tap is not "used up" after one pass through a sink — it is lightly polluted with food residue, soap, and dissolved nutrients, and those are nutrients your fruit trees and reed beds want. The danger to navigate is real: greywater carelessly handled spreads pathogens, accumulates surfactants in soil, and runs afoul of code in ways that can cost more than every other Ark project combined. The Grey Line is the rig where simple gravity + biology beats complex mechanical treatment for long-term reliability, and where legal compliance is non-negotiable rather than aspirational.
FootprintUnder-house / yard installation; 10–20 sq ft surface footprint for filter + mulch basinYield50–100+ gallons / day of usable irrigation water for a typical 4-person householdCycleContinuous / automatic operation; 4× / year inspection cycle
The Gut
Small-scale anaerobic biodigester converting kitchen waste and/or animal manure into biogas for cooking and liquid fertilizer.
Footprint4ft x 4ftYield0.5–1.0 m3 biogas/dayCycleDaily feed
The Sanctum
Human waste processing. Composting toilet + extended treatment pipeline converting waste into safe fertilizer and optionally feeding a biodigester.
FootprintToilet + 4ft x 4ft outdoorYield~80 lbs humanure/yr/personCycle12 months minimum
The Worm Bank
Vermicomposting system converting kitchen scraps and paper into worm castings — one of the highest-quality soil amendments available.
Footprint2ft x 3ft x 1.5ftYield~5 lbs castings/monthCycleWeekly feed