It's been mandatory for many a good year in Queensland to exhibit 'Bore Water' signs, especially in semi-rural areas . . . I've lived in Queensland for 18 years now and remember quite clearly the signs of those with 'gardens' stating that they use bore water . . .

I lived in Melbourne many years ago during a drought and a neighbour installed a bore which was very effective. He erected a large sign in his front garden which read, "Boar water in use".

Lol . . . wonder how you get water from a Boar (bit like milking a cow?). . .

Thanks for the welcome, Copago. Re: Colorbond, check the Bluescope Steel web site, etc; for the manufacturing process of products, and the chemicals used. There is also a chart somewhere which shows the different roofing products and how a chemical reaction occurs when water is incorrectly channeled from one metal to another.

Engadine!...mmmm, would it be classed as recycled?

Im glad to see someone has finally invented a way of recycling Copago. I have been thinking about it for years now as I think it is such a waste when you pull out the plug and the bath water goes right down the drain. Wonder if it will ever make it's way over here...

If all you've used in the bath is normal soap, it's probably quite safe to use the water on the garden without any treatment. Spraying roses, etc, with soapy water is an old fashioned method of treating greenfly and blackfly infestation, and has been used for many years without harming plants. Soapy water is undoubtedly less harmful to soil, plants and environment than the chemical fertilisers and pesticides which many people use liberally.
Last year South East England experience drought conditions, with hosepipes and garden sprinklers banned for months. During this period, we used bathwater to wash cars and water plants, without any problem. I have a couple of large rain water catchment barrels attached to roof gutter drainpipes, and during the drought period, just syphoned the bathwater into them.
The only plants I ever water are those in pots, troughs, etc, the ones directly in the garden having to survive as best as they can. During the drought, the lawns went brown, and the soil cracked, but they quickly and fully recovered when it began raining again. None of the garden plants, which are mainly shrubs and perrenials suffered, and all survived the drought. Artificial watering of garden plants simply encourages them to root close to the surface, rather than pushing roots down to deeper, cooler soil with some moisture.

For many years, when we were kids, we scooped the bath water out into buckets and watered the garden during droughts when hosepipe watering was not allowed. Today I would like to do the same but wish there was an easier way. Fortunately we have not had a severe drought for many years now.

You are a lucky Lady indeed . . . it's becoming rather mundane Down Under, at least in the rural and semi rural areas . . . drought, that is . . .

We need to go to Northern Qld, Engadine, lotsa floods there. Can we find a top scientific team to recycle the water? It is, after all, full of all sorts of 'yuck' from animals and birds. Just like the water in our dams, but, there are those who are happy to drink recycled animal 'yuck', and maybe will not drink recycled human 'yuck'because they think that human 'yuck' is 'yuckier'.

My mother used to have a washing machine where you had the option of reusing the rinse water from one load to wash the next load. If you plugged the sink that it emptied into, it would suck it back up for a second load if you chose that setting.
Of course it had to have two drain pipes(wash and rinse) and two sinks because if you dumped both the eash water nad the rinse water into the same tub you had a lovely flood.
That was a lot of years ago!

We had a pump in our grey water tank . . . ran the sprinkler/hose onto the garden bed (vegies only, others fended for themselves, mostly natives tho') and that was that! We went through three pumps in something like 12 years, but, insurance paid for their replacement (the motors would eventually burn out due to human 'yuck' getting caught in the workings)

I don't think a lot of people really know where their water supply comes from. Here's one for you:

Back in the early 90's I was filling a position for the parole department in Longmont, Colorado [Boulder County]. As it so happens I had a fellow on one of the programs who had to come in and provide urinalysis testing for illegal substances. Anyways when you're two men in one stall things get to be a bit awkward and you look for things to talk about. As it so happens he was the manager of the waste water treatment plant on the outskirts of town. Well water being on the mind during that moment he says to me " ya know it's seventeen days from toilet to tap". *blink-blink* - WHAT? " yeah during the spring when the run off comes from the mountains we can't hold the water back long enough and then it's even less than 17 days; that's why so many people get sick around then" he further said it's an evil necessity.

I have a five stage water purification system here in Israel and I love it!