Grey water is water contaminated with soap, detergent, food scraps, food residue or flakes of human skin. Soft Landing will not be providing any evaporation of camper grey water. If you would like to become our Grey (Water) Lord and take on the job of making our camper grey water cycle more sustainable please let us know. The Evapotron setup is currently for the teahouse only because it functions best that way. We want to make sure you are all prepared to pack out or process your own grey water. This is pretty substantially different from life at home, where water disappears down the drain instantly. We know from our careful data collection that about a third of you are new to Soft Landing this year. Please be prepared! This is a camp that particularly emphasizes radical self-reliance and our gifts to the playa. One of the ways we express this value is by providing minimal amenities and focusing our resources on our community based art projects.

So, there are a few good ways to process or pack out your own grey water. One of the nicest ways to process grey water is to filter it through a piece of cloth like a bandana, then lay a paper towel on top to absorb all the oil. Put the chunks from the cloth and the paper towel in your doubled up trash bag at your own tent. Now, you have “light grey water.” This can be poured onto a towel or moving blanket on top of your cooler to promote evaporative cooling, or poured into a swamp cooler to keep your tent pleasant during the day. Just make sure not a drop touches the playa! Unfiltered grey water can be poured into an empty container in which you brought in water. Just be sure to sanitize (or recycle) the container after you get home!

Personal grey water is any water you have used that is not leaving your body as urine or sweat. This includes water from brushing your teeth, cleaning your dishes in the community kitchen, showering in the camp shower, cooking pasta for 20 people, etc. It must not touch the playa, and you are responsible for all of your own grey water. Please be mindful of this in your packing, and consider bringing resealable water containers to make it easier to pack your water back out — those single-use “suitcase” style water containers don’t reseal well, nor do one-gallon jugs with a pop top instead of a twist cap.

This may seem like a lot of explanation about a simple topic, but in a recent year someone dumped their grey water in the fuel containment system in the camp’s fuel depot! Don’t be that person!