Primary treatment involves screening and sedimentation to remove large solids and grit.
We supply millions of litres of recycled water every day, helping to reduce demand on drinking water supplies.
What is recycled water?
Recycled water comes from wastewater, greywater, or stormwater. The water is treated so it's safe and appropriate for its intended use.
Recycled water is a valuable resource. It's important we conserve recycled water and use it wisely. Like drinking water, it's precious.
Water resource recovery facilities use multiple processes to treat wastewater so it can be safely used as recycled water.
How recycled water is produced
We use multiple processes to treat wastewater at our water resource recovery facilities so it is suitable and safe for its intended use. The level of treatment provided determines how the recycled water can be used.
We manage and monitor our recycled water to ensure it meets the Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling, NSW Health and other regulatory requirements.
Recycled water can also be produced using sewer mining, stormwater harvesting and on-site systems.
We're exploring other opportunities to use recycled water. This may include purified recycled water (PRW) as a future water source to supplement drinking water sources.
Levels of treatment
Secondary treatment uses microorganisms to reduce organic material and nutrients. Further settlement during this process removes smaller solids.
Tertiary treatment removes finer particles and reduces nutrients to very low levels.
Advanced tertiary treatment uses ultrafiltration or microfiltration membranes to remove finer particles and reduce nutrients even lower.
Reverse osmosis uses fine barrier membranes at high pressure to improve the water quality even further, including removing dissolved salts.
Disinfection is the last step for all levels of treatment, using chlorine and/or ultraviolet light to deactivate microorganisms.
How recycled water can be used
As Greater Sydney continues to grow, using recycled water saves drinking water and helps to support a sustainable water supply for the future. Although the recycled water we produce is treated to a high standard, it’s not for drinking.
We supply recycled water to homes and businesses through purple‑coloured pipes that are completely separate to the drinking water system. If you've just moved to your property and have a recycled water meter, you can follow our simple step‑by‑step recycled water plumbing connection check.
View our map of water recycling in the Sydney region.
Recycled water can be used to irrigate golf courses.
Uses for recycled water
The recycled water we supply to homes and businesses can be used for watering gardens, flushing toilets and washing laundry in a washing machine. Households using recycled water typically use less drinking water, helping to reduce pressure on our drinking water supplies.
Recycled water is stored in dedicated reservoirs, and supplied through purple-coloured pipes and meters that are separate from the drinking water system.
The Rouse Hill Water Resource Recovery Facility supplies high-quality tertiary treated recycled water to more than 30,000 properties in Sydney's north-west including homes, schools and businesses.
In south-west Sydney, recycled water is supplied from the Wilton Water Resource Recovery Facility to the Bingara Gorge estate in Wilton. Recycled water will also be delivered to new developments in the Wilton area over the next few years.
Find more information in Recycled water at your home or business.
We supply recycled water to irrigate farms, golf courses, racecourses, sports fields and parks.
This includes:
- the University of Western Sydney's Hawkesbury Campus
- Picton Farm, Aorangi Farm at Gerroa, and the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute at Menangle
- golf courses at Kiama, Liverpool, Richmond, Wollongong, St Marys, Quakers Hill and Castle Hill
- Warwick Farm Racecourse
- Penrith and Wollongong city council public sports fields.
Recycled water can be a reliable alternative water supply for irrigation, especially during drought periods, as it's not usually impacted by water restrictions.
Recycled water can typically be used in industry for:
- cooling towers and boilers
- some manufacturing processes
- dust suppression
- firefighting.
The Wollongong Water Resource Recovery Facility uses advanced tertiary treatment to produce high‑quality recycled water.
We supply billions of litres of high-quality recycled water each year to BlueScope Steel for their iron and steel-making processes.
Recycled water is also supplied to the Port Kembla Coal Terminal, where it is used to spray coal stockpiles and reduce dust.
Appropriate use of recycled water in industry helps save large amounts of drinking water and can reduce long‑term costs.
Using recycled water helps care for the environment and maintain waterway health.
The St Marys Advanced Water Treatment Plant takes recycled water from the Penrith and St Marys water resource recovery facilities and treats it further using ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis.
The plant produces billions of litres of high‑quality recycled water each year to help maintain flows in the Hawkesbury‑Nepean River.