My understanding from someone close to me who works in wastewater treatment is that disinfection (killing pathogens - bacteria/viruses) is no problem and removing particulate matter. But removal of pharmaceutical chemicals that we excrete is still a major challenge.
My husband has worked in wastewater treatment (reclamation) for over 25 years, and I have my operators license. It's surprising that people don't know that the water that they bath in, wash clothes in, and flush can and in some places does end up back in the tap. Called Toilet to Tap, it's a process of extreme filtering, biological, physical and and chemical treatment that makes water safe enough for reuse as drinking water. In places like Las Vegas, almost half of the water used in the valley is returned to wetlands and eventually flows to Lake Mead. The treated waste water is responsible for creating wildlife habitats that wouldn't normally have existed as well as combating the ever dropping levels of a lake that supplies water to much of the southwest.
@@ghostderazgriz it sounds suspicious but it's been extremely thoroughly researched on how to filter it. Like Reverse osmosis, etc (I remember only learning this at like primary school many years ago)
They are also making money from this since they are buying wastewater from Malaysia very cheaply and selling back the treated water at a very high price.
We have a reverse osmosis filtration system for our drinking water at home since Sis and I were babies. Mom and Dad wanted to be sure we get the best, clean water that wouldn't harm us while growing up.
I remember going to a water treatment plant; it has been over a decade and I have indeed read and watched documentaries about this issue. IT is really important to take climate change seriously and water filtration seriously. I covered this in a presentation in high school, but apparently, people didn't take climate change seriously in 2016. That's ridiculous!
@@freetousebyjtc I think they're referring to how long of a journey waste water takes before it gets to your tap again (presumed to be the one in your kitchen).
People in Singapore are very skeptical on drinking NeWater but when officials explained, the recycled water was stored first in reservoir everyone was wiling to drink 🚽 water
As a water treatment specialist, I want to add that while it is certainly technically possible to treat sewage into potable water it is a highly expensive process. Reverse osmosis membranes are expensive and require regular maintenance and high energy use. If we were to entirely depend on these systems for our drinking water, a lot of communities around the world (even those connected to existing wastewater networks) wouldn't be able to afford all the clean water they need. We still depend heavily on the free services that natural systems offer us.
the title brought something to my attention that I never wanted to know and now Im scared to watch the video and think that they dont do enough to purify the water
some geniuses in my city decided to put the water treatment plant with 4 open top settling tanks just 3 kilometers from the medieval old town city center, peoples homes all around. luckily I dont live anywhere near there but I heard many complaints that every night they open up something and the horrendous smell comes out and covers the area not dispersing till the morning, I even experienced that when I drove past there with my car windows open one time
Nature uses sun which is free to vaporize the wastewater and carry it over to a clean water reservoir. Humans trying to do the same would have to use much more energy to treat it the same way. We have to be more efficient than nature since nothing we do is entirely free. It's, effort, materials, energy that cannot be provided by natural systems automatically.
It DOESN'T matter...ALL the liquid in the world.The water molecules has been in sh1t at some point...you have to eat sand if you wan't to avoid it. And it is tough to even find sand where nobody has shat before
Singapore is a city state. The size is not big enough to capture enough rainwater to meet the daily needs of 5.6 million people. In Singapore, we have 4 sources of drinking water (or known as taps), namely: water catchment area, imported, desalination and NEWater.
@@miteshghadi3146 desalination is a far more energy intensive and less efficient since there are more salt in sea water than waste water. Additionally, there are adverse environmental impacts of desalination especially brine water being dumped back into the sea.
A country like Singapore has to do such thing because the country doesn't have much natural resources. Thanks to its human resource however they overcame the challenge of water consumption.
I've been wondering. Is water ever really wasted? Unless it's leaving the earth everyday, isn't water just going to be on earth because of water cycle? Evaporation, plant absorption etc. makes it seem like water isn't ever really wasted, just gone to a different place but will not leave earth. Am i wrong?
The wastage is in the energy and effort it require to get those water to useable condition and you end up not using it well. The same reasoning applies to food. If you don't your cooked food and just throw them away, it doesn't leave the Earth, but it is still considered as wasted.
@@secondsein77491000% agree with this, and don't forget we can say it is a 'wasted' if we remember a lot of people out there still suffer from poor access to clean&safe drinking water.
If we define waste by its ability to leave earth, technically, not even plastic waste is considered waste, so you can see why that definition does not work when defining the healthy use of waste and byproduct.
Waste is defined as something that is misused or lost. Water can, indeed, be wasted. We think water is an infinite resource, and with water cover well over 75% of Earth's surface, it's easy to arrive at that conclusion. However, glaciers can disappear; rivers can run dry; lakes can evaporate; and groundwater can be used all up. So the supply is finite for some places. If water in these places is used to keep the lawn green or wash a driveway rather than for essential needs, then that's water wasted, because if water runs out, it's rationed or must be gathered elsewhere.
@@einsteinboricua if someone waters their grass or washes their car, its not wasted. Its used and put back into the environment, especially watering grass. Its being used and can still be collected later like car washes have drains or if you wash your car on a driveway you can let it evaporate. Might be wasted when comparing it to drinking but it's still being used and the water cycle will continue
Using drinkable water to flash the toilet seems like a waste. Especially when so many people in developing or poorer countries do not have access to clean water.
If you are ever worried about drinking waste water don't ever go on a ship. A cruise or navy ship will clean all the water on board without going to port.
Wow i wondered how water that we use is provided to us. How to sort tab water and toilet water. It was just mixed and filtered and disinfected. Haha. But i tend to believe the power of technology
Late to the discussion but will share my thoughts. The production volume of graphene is so low its hardly being used except for demonstration purposes. Also graphene oxide filters have a tendency to destabilize when remaining in contact with water so there is risk involved. I dont thing we will see any large scale commercial applications of such filters in another decade still a lot of research needs to be done.
5:02〜5:22 Could someone tell me these sentence means with easy English? I can't understand these sentences, because I'm not native English speaker. And these don't have subtitles😢
Transcription from me: "So how did we get to the point where we figured out how to safely recycle waste water? How do we know we can actually trust this science? Take a closer look at the difference between science and pseudoscience with this video." Simplified (or paraphrased/reworded): "So how did we learn how we can safely recycle waste water? How do we know we can trust this information? Learn the difference between science and pseudoscience by watching this video" So basically, How did we learn we can recycle waste water and how can we trust that information as true? I hope that helps
Do some videos about Less is More (the book) technologies do help in our fight with the degrating life conditions on earth but it alone cant do miracles, we need to degrowth
So, does this mean we should start using Brawndo for drinking and irrigation, instead of using toilet water? They do say that Brawndo has electrolytes, after all, and that electrolytes are what plants crave.
My understanding from someone close to me who works in wastewater treatment is that disinfection (killing pathogens - bacteria/viruses) is no problem and removing particulate matter. But removal of pharmaceutical chemicals that we excrete is still a major challenge.
Yup l, it’s not profitable to improve water treatment, so don’t expect anything other then the bare minimum under capitalism.
Forever chemicals?
Damn
Is evaporation and condensation too slow/expensive to make it feasible for water treatment?
@@azlan194yeah that's incredibly energy intensive, you're basically describing desalination
My husband has worked in wastewater treatment (reclamation) for over 25 years, and I have my operators license. It's surprising that people don't know that the water that they bath in, wash clothes in, and flush can and in some places does end up back in the tap. Called Toilet to Tap, it's a process of extreme filtering, biological, physical and and chemical treatment that makes water safe enough for reuse as drinking water. In places like Las Vegas, almost half of the water used in the valley is returned to wetlands and eventually flows to Lake Mead. The treated waste water is responsible for creating wildlife habitats that wouldn't normally have existed as well as combating the ever dropping levels of a lake that supplies water to much of the southwest.
can we just appreciate how ted ed posts amazing videos for us so consistently? thank you!
Jesus loves you ❤️ please turn to him and repent before it's too late. The end times described in the Bible are already happening in the world.
No
Go drink some of my @$$ water, brah!!
Plz stop commenting that to every channel
@@L17_8Go away weirdo.
As a Singaporean, I see this as an absolute win
Saw this video title and didn't want to know that. But now I have to watch for an explanation to ease my concern. Outstanding move Ted-Ed
Hi from Singapore! They actually mixed the NEWater with reservoir water because it is too clean and devoid of any minerals!
Simple and best explanation about wastewater treatment 😀
In Singapore, this type of water has a name, NEWater! The residents were skeptical initially but we are generally fine with it now.
I imagine naming it NEWater only made the skepticism worse.
@@ghostderazgriz it sounds suspicious but it's been extremely thoroughly researched on how to filter it. Like Reverse osmosis, etc (I remember only learning this at like primary school many years ago)
I'm sure it would take me a while to get used to literal 'Doo Doo water' too 😅
They are also making money from this since they are buying wastewater from Malaysia very cheaply and selling back the treated water at a very high price.
@@kennyalale4904not just that, where do you think the water astronauts drink in space come from?
Ted Ed keep answering these questions that we want to know but forget to search it!
Thank you
I love this channel because it provides short, simple & useful graphical topics
i love this channel so much, it's like gossiping but academically.
as a Singaporean I am proud of the creativity the world and SG are all adopting
Just appreciate Ted Ed vids so much
Just appreciate Ted Ed vids so much. I'm surprised that more areas don't do this already.
Love science and scientists. How far have come. ❤
Thank you for the answer that I keep questioning in my head but have never tried to look up
I'm surprised that more areas don't do this already
We have a reverse osmosis filtration system for our drinking water at home since Sis and I were babies. Mom and Dad wanted to be sure we get the best, clean water that wouldn't harm us while growing up.
what a dope
Too bad your parents weren't educated enough to understand that reverse osmosis water has no health benefits lmao
Amazing. This needs to become the new norm of the US and the world!
Your videos are crucial for listening and speking
I remember going to a water treatment plant; it has been over a decade and I have indeed read and watched documentaries about this issue. IT is really important to take climate change seriously and water filtration seriously. I covered this in a presentation in high school, but apparently, people didn't take climate change seriously in 2016. That's ridiculous!
"Flush twice it's a long way to the kitchen." was something someone said when I was a young boy in up-state New York
Why is it a long way to the kitchen? English is not my first language so I don't think I understand this sentence
I speak native english and I still don't understand
@@freetousebyjtc I think they're referring to how long of a journey waste water takes before it gets to your tap again (presumed to be the one in your kitchen).
People in Singapore are very skeptical on drinking NeWater but when officials explained, the recycled water was stored first in reservoir everyone was wiling to drink 🚽 water
As a water treatment specialist, I want to add that while it is certainly technically possible to treat sewage into potable water it is a highly expensive process. Reverse osmosis membranes are expensive and require regular maintenance and high energy use. If we were to entirely depend on these systems for our drinking water, a lot of communities around the world (even those connected to existing wastewater networks) wouldn't be able to afford all the clean water they need. We still depend heavily on the free services that natural systems offer us.
Thanks Ted Ed
"Cloudy cocktail"
💀NAHHH
Ted-ed always show us an amazing insight on what can humanity do for the better future of mankind, that we always hope for .
what a perfect video to watch while im eating
the title brought something to my attention that I never wanted to know and now Im scared to watch the video and think that they dont do enough to purify the water
Can we stop commenting on how the animations are great and look at how much you can actually learn from Ted Ed
Can't imagine a world without having these treatment processes of wastewater😶
This video motivates me to keep drinking it
This seems to me like the best solution for moving forward. We need to invest in the future and water is essential for life
some geniuses in my city decided to put the water treatment plant with 4 open top settling tanks just 3 kilometers from the medieval old town city center, peoples homes all around. luckily I dont live anywhere near there but I heard many complaints that every night they open up something and the horrendous smell comes out and covers the area not dispersing till the morning, I even experienced that when I drove past there with my car windows open one time
Ted ed is incredible.
Wow i learned a lot from this video
you inspired me to make my own content like yours
It's interesting. Thanks.
We drink water straight from tap in SG. Amazing!!
nice video
I've honestly always wondered why more forms of biological water filtration haven't been used...after all, nature is the best solution.
That is what happens in the indirect potable reuse process
Nature uses sun which is free to vaporize the wastewater and carry it over to a clean water reservoir. Humans trying to do the same would have to use much more energy to treat it the same way. We have to be more efficient than nature since nothing we do is entirely free. It's, effort, materials, energy that cannot be provided by natural systems automatically.
not always
Filter feeders take hours to clean up water and also they have to actually involve aqua culture farmers to raise bivalves
Video thật tuyệt vời, cảm ơn TED và tác giả
Living in the Thames Water area we know that we’ve drunk the water several times before
hahah the twlight quote at the beginning caught me off guard, i was like "wait I've READ this somewhere!! i remember!"
Great video 🔝👍
Not gonnal lie, this motivates me to stop drink water
Ratio
Dehydration doesn’t seem so bad
There is no escape; they use this water in agriculture, and juice companies also use it.
why?
It DOESN'T matter...ALL the liquid in the world.The water molecules has been in sh1t at some point...you have to eat sand if you wan't to avoid it. And it is tough to even find sand where nobody has shat before
Very inspiring theory
Theory? It’s a reality
this is a good video
yay Tito Francis!!
Omg I’ve always wanted to google what happens to the water I flush but was always too lazy to do so
I always wanted to know this!
Knows that it’ll probably change the way I think about water for the rest of my life but chooses to watch anyway.
Seriously!? woah!
Really amazing
Water is life
It is very interesting, indeed
Here in the Philippines, those who have water treatment facilities are companies selling drinking water that are either distilled or mineral.
And modern tests im assuming don't test for plastics or actually they do I just dont know if they are impossible to filter out like PfAs and BPA
I think they should also develop technologies to use and reuse atmospheric water. That seems more of a solution for ever increasing population.
After proper filtration and removal of particles, we can safely use this water
Very good, i like it
Singapore is S.E.A where we get plenty of rain. Why not setup infrastructure to capture and store rain water, helps with flooding too?
Singapore is a city state. The size is not big enough to capture enough rainwater to meet the daily needs of 5.6 million people. In Singapore, we have 4 sources of drinking water (or known as taps), namely: water catchment area, imported, desalination and NEWater.
Why they cannot use sea water directly instead of waste water
@@miteshghadi3146 desalination is a far more energy intensive and less efficient since there are more salt in sea water than waste water. Additionally, there are adverse environmental impacts of desalination especially brine water being dumped back into the sea.
@@miteshghadi3146 sea water has more minerals or salts that is harder to remove than any other large and cheap source of water
A country like Singapore has to do such thing because the country doesn't have much natural resources. Thanks to its human resource however they overcame the challenge of water consumption.
Windhoek was the first city to do this 😊
Yes as a signporean we been educated with that knowledge that newwater is safe water. But hey, new water is much cleaner than normal water
What's wrong with distilling water?
I've been wondering. Is water ever really wasted? Unless it's leaving the earth everyday, isn't water just going to be on earth because of water cycle? Evaporation, plant absorption etc. makes it seem like water isn't ever really wasted, just gone to a different place but will not leave earth. Am i wrong?
The wastage is in the energy and effort it require to get those water to useable condition and you end up not using it well.
The same reasoning applies to food. If you don't your cooked food and just throw them away, it doesn't leave the Earth, but it is still considered as wasted.
@@secondsein77491000% agree with this, and don't forget we can say it is a 'wasted' if we remember a lot of people out there still suffer from poor access to clean&safe drinking water.
If we define waste by its ability to leave earth, technically, not even plastic waste is considered waste, so you can see why that definition does not work when defining the healthy use of waste and byproduct.
Waste is defined as something that is misused or lost. Water can, indeed, be wasted. We think water is an infinite resource, and with water cover well over 75% of Earth's surface, it's easy to arrive at that conclusion. However, glaciers can disappear; rivers can run dry; lakes can evaporate; and groundwater can be used all up. So the supply is finite for some places. If water in these places is used to keep the lawn green or wash a driveway rather than for essential needs, then that's water wasted, because if water runs out, it's rationed or must be gathered elsewhere.
@@einsteinboricua if someone waters their grass or washes their car, its not wasted. Its used and put back into the environment, especially watering grass. Its being used and can still be collected later like car washes have drains or if you wash your car on a driveway you can let it evaporate. Might be wasted when comparing it to drinking but it's still being used and the water cycle will continue
Trying to learn, will the water be potable if the heavier objects are removed and then distilled using sunlight?
Awesome!
sợ quá , uống vài cốc nước cho đỡ sợ
Idk why I never thought we’re drinking the water we flush 😭
Ozone works well to disinfect water
When in doubt, dilution is the solution.
Intriguing
Interesting!
Each droplet has their story i guess
Interesting
It be nice if we can channel water from our gutter during rains to be used like Gray water for our toilets and watering plants.
singaporean here
Using drinkable water to flash the toilet seems like a waste. Especially when so many people in developing or poorer countries do not have access to clean water.
If you are ever worried about drinking waste water don't ever go on a ship. A cruise or navy ship will clean all the water on board without going to port.
Nice
how bout microplastics found in water
How do they filter the chemicals we put down the drain? Bleach, toilet cleaner, drano, surface cleaners etc. doesn’t just disappear
Filter it or make it change into something filterable.
How about hospitals waste that go through sewers? That is more concerning than common household chemicals like bleach.
so you’re drinking radioactive water
Cool
well we are drinking same water for centuries!
its weird that most of us doesnt know
This isn't as disturbing as knowing that all our water was once dinosaur pee..... 😂
let me feel you disturb further: our body parts are once Dinosaur's
@@FedJimSmithnot true whatsoever
@@samiam2003 probably is, dinasaurs , are cells are carbon based , and they are got rrcycled once they died
Everybody gangsta until the next time you will be thirsty
0:43 Ask the astronauts and kosmonauts on ISS!
Wow i wondered how water that we use is provided to us. How to sort tab water and toilet water. It was just mixed and filtered and disinfected. Haha. But i tend to believe the power of technology
how? water in dumps,ponds, rivers,and seas evaporate to become clouds which then rains water
We have been dumping cleaned waste water into the rivers and then using the same water as tap water. This is nothing new
And what about the use of graphene? Graphene only allows the pass of water through their structure. Could graphene filters be an option?
Late to the discussion but will share my thoughts. The production volume of graphene is so low its hardly being used except for demonstration purposes. Also graphene oxide filters have a tendency to destabilize when remaining in contact with water so there is risk involved. I dont thing we will see any large scale commercial applications of such filters in another decade still a lot of research needs to be done.
5:02〜5:22
Could someone tell me these sentence means with easy English?
I can't understand these sentences, because I'm not native English speaker.
And these don't have subtitles😢
Transcription from me: "So how did we get to the point where we figured out how to safely recycle waste water? How do we know we can actually trust this science? Take a closer look at the difference between science and pseudoscience with this video."
Simplified (or paraphrased/reworded): "So how did we learn how we can safely recycle waste water? How do we know we can trust this information? Learn the difference between science and pseudoscience by watching this video"
So basically, How did we learn we can recycle waste water and how can we trust that information as true?
I hope that helps
Do some videos about Less is More (the book) technologies do help in our fight with the degrating life conditions on earth but it alone cant do miracles, we need to degrowth
water goes through all this filtration yet the water in my college dorm room reaks of chlorine lol
What happends with all the chemicals?
So this is why my water tastes like chemicals? And the reservoir nearby dried out my skin and tasted horrible
So, does this mean we should start using Brawndo for drinking and irrigation, instead of using toilet water? They do say that Brawndo has electrolytes, after all, and that electrolytes are what plants crave.
Hahaha nice Idiocracy reference
We if believe something can be contaminated they we should believe something can be cleansed too