Domestic Waste Water Systems – Legislation?

Domestic Waste Water Systems - Legislation?

On the list of climate actions any home with a garden can “easily” engage in, we’d like to see the topic of Domestic Waste Watershow to avoid them and how to reuse them in our immediate landscapes; for food resilience, for wildfire prevention, for shelterbelts for biodiversity and so on.

The NBS of reedbeds or other phytopurifying installations are well known solutions already for working with grey waters. WET-lands or leeching fields can also take higher levels of “contamination”. Vermicomposting toilets work, and in combination with a secondary and terciary purifying process (aquatic plants in gravel beds + woodchip bowls or channels in combination with vegetation) provide a nutrient rich water source for our foodscapes, firebelts and biodiversity hedges.

Project Aims

We feel there is a need for awareness raising of these Nature Based Solutions on a domestic scale as well as a lack of transparency in legislation in these matters.

Therefore we would like to take time to list European and maybe also global legal frameworks that allow to reuse domestic waste waters in our gardens and under which circumstances.

We want to identify and document case studies and free up funds to conduct proper research such as laboratory tests on effluents of maturing and mature systems and/or soil irrigated with these effluents.

Ideally we can give anyone working with water professionally the jumping board they need to back up their often innovative (to the ears of some) solutions in front of administrations or their clients, especially now that we are living a general time of droughts and floods in many areas of the globe.

Team

Aline VaMo, Kinga Milankovics

Reporting Officer: Aline VaMo

Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project 

Objectives

April 2023


1. Survey
:

    1. During the 2 months survey we gather information about already existing material online in the form of infographics, articles, documents, professional services and projects in favour of using the NBS mentioned above and document the resources found in a NextCloud folder and spreadsheet with links.
    2. During this stage we also search for legislation and list interesting resources or research papers mentioning such legislation in a spreadsheet and NextCloud folder.
  1. Analysis: During this 2 months’ phase we go through the materials found and identify the top 3 case studies, the top 3 legal frameworks to work within and the top 3 habits to adopt for optimal reuse of your domestic waste waters
  2. Design: In the last phase of again 2 months we will edit the data and the raw material, and pour it into an informative, professional looking, educational slideshow presentation that can be shared online.

OUTCOMEs

September 2023 Update

So far we have started a database that is open to the public and which we hope you can can add resources to: https://cloud.perma.earth/s/Xx4ZWSZ9ReoTMDD

We are working on pouring the key findings and case studies of this Emergent Festival funded project into a shareable presentation format, which should be ready by the end of October, as per the “Next Steps Project” outline for this edition of the festival.

resources created

contact links

Permaculture Places in the Metaverse

Permaculture Places in the Metaverse

Research into and development of permaculture-themed virtual 3D worlds for the open source Mozilla Hubs platform.

Team

Rakesh Rootsman Rak, Ewan Findley, Jemma Findley

Reporting Officer: Ewan Findley

Area

Prototyping, Emergent festival, Next Steps project 

Objectives

  1. Phase one: research & planning (May-Jun 2023)
    • Identify affordances, limitations and potential for the Mozilla Hubs platform
    • Explore and identify suitable permaculture themes and concepts based on the above
    • Develop these ideas into more detailed virtual world plans
  2. Phase two: Development (Jul-Aug)
    • Build the worlds defined in 1.3 (above) using open source tools such as Blender and Spoke
  3. Phase three: Publishing and Launch (Sep)
    • Publish the developed worlds with a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 license using Spoke
    • Share this via CoLab Slack, newsletter and website article
    • Present and demonstrate the world(s) to permaculture educators at the in-person Educators Gathering in September 2023 organised by the Permaculture Association. This will be demonstrated on phone, desktop and VR headset, along with an introduction to the Hubs platform and the metaverse as a concept.
  4. Ongoing: learning & reporting
      • Document learnings along the way
      • Share progress and learnings on CoLab Slack




    • Updated aims due to lack of funding through the Emergent festival –
    • The project can continue as planned within this budget. Proposed work within this budget is as follows:
      Jemma, Rakesh and Ewan have two 1.5 hour meetings (total 9 hours work at suggested hourly rates).
      Rakesh 3 x 25h  = £75
      Jemma 3 x 25h = £75
      Ewan 3 x 22h = £66Total £216
    • These meetings will cover the first two items from phase one:
      Phase one: research & planning– Identify affordances, limitations and potential for the Mozilla Hubs platform
      – Explore and identify suitable permaculture themes and concepts based on the above.
    • By the end of this the outputs will be;
    • – notes documenting the process
      – recordings of the sessions that can be shared with CoLab and our educator and permaculture networks
    • The remaining budget will be used to edit the notes and recordings to make sure they are useful for distribution for others to learn from.Ewan 0.5h x £22 = £11I will seek further funding for continuation of the work, with the aim to complete a usable prototype for testing and sharing.

OUTCOMEs

resources created

contact links

Monitoring and Evaluation Services

Monitoring and Evaluation Services

Supporting permaculture projects in addressing their challenges and evaluating and measuring impact.

Team

Kate Swatridge, Aimee Fenech

Reporting Officer: Kate Swatridge

Area

Network Weaving, Prototyping, Next Steps Project

objectives

Project Objectives for Year 1

Design the client support package (‘the offer’).

Define eligibility criteria for client projects and selection process.
Create application form.

Draft Terms of Reference / Commitment for client projects to sign up to.

Communicate (advertise) the  offer and invite applications.

Select first three client projects.  

Hold initial meeting with each project, identify their needs. Seek commitment from their leadership team. 

Research, plan and co-design a pathway for them, ready to start early 2024.  

Identify stacking opportunities between the three projects and their needs.

Integrate individual pathways into a single workplan for Group 8 project team.

Design & setup micro-grant system. Criteria & what can be claimed for, how to apply, consent process, funds disbursement (10 payments over 3 years).

Project management, admin and reporting.

OUTCOMEs

April 2023 Update

This project has not started yet, beyond some initial project planning. This was planned and is due to capacity constraints of the team. Work will commence in earnest in September.

This project will offer bespoke support to several permaculture projects that are wanting to start or improve their evaluation and impact assessment. This could include 1-1 support, access to online courses, and group workshops. More details to follow. If you are working with a project that would be interested in this service, please contact us. There will be an application / selection process depending on level of interest. The service will be free to projects but will require a time and enthusiasm commitment!

resources created

contact links

Practical Solutions Research and Development

Practical Solutions Research and Development

Research, document and develop practical solutions to major challenges of our time including water shortages, loss of biodiversity, food production and strengthening local economies.

Research & document a case study over three years producing an annual report of solutions trials and results.

Team

Aimee Fenech, Anton Oussik, Paco and Adrian Garcia, Ras Cresswell

Reporting Officer: Anton Oussik

Area

Prototyping, Grassroots Permaculture Project, Next Steps Project

objectives

Split budget across our four main themes following the seasons:

water shortages (spring/summer)

optimizing irrigation practices
maintenance/repairs to irrigation system
documenting & optimizing water catchment systems already in place

strengthening local economy (all year)

document participate and promote local exchange practices
collaborate with local initiatives including the seed-bank, permaculture initiatives

food production (spring to autumn)

optimizing and document farm harvests from main crop, foraging and wild foods

biodiversity (quarterly)

put in place scientific survey practices to document changing levels in biodiversity
document creation and effects of micro climates through changes in water management

OUTCOMEs

See the attached report in Resources Created below.

Inclusive Organising Technologies

Inclusive Organising Technologies

Development & research into inclusive organizational models within self-organised bodies / communities to be developed and revised.

Research, testing and prototyping into inclusive ways that is documented and shared widely within the community.

Team

Aimee Fenech, Aline VaMo, Kinga Milankovics, Andy Goldring

Reporting Officer: Aline VaMo

Area

Prototyping, Next Steps Project

objectives

Review and update the aims of the CoLab an exercise in simplification.

Simple review of available tools (S3 etc) Description of current situation (working / not / gaps).

Development of simple new ‘User Guide/Handbook’.

Documenting the process of how the above is done to be shared as a case study.

OUTCOMEs

April 2023 Update

The CoLab seems to be a well operating organism without any real guidebooks or rules showing us the way (currently). We believe this may have to do with personal energies, both from people that can and do “lead” and from people who take responsibility to “just do it”. Highlighting the latter (self-organized – proactivity – responsibility) to any newcomers to the CoLab might be key.

A draft for a form to collect data has been started. We will share this with the CoLab community after our next meeting, planned for the 18th of April.

resources created

contact links