Perhaps a new invention I just came up with would help with the showers:
After the first (unspecified) time period where the water goes down the drain, it switches into the recirculate mode with a re-heater and reuses the water for as long as you would like.
Disease.
I thimk you may be on to something!
That’s actually a pretty darn good idea.
As long as there was enough time to rinse off if you are really dirty.
Pssssst
Don’t tell anybody.
But we have been recycling our greywater from washer and kitchen sink forever.
Plumber hubby put in a shunt to redirect it out to a barrel with a hose spigot and I use it to water yard and garden stuff.
I’ll tell you what would be the best invention...
A shower water valve with a pushbutton on/off switch. I have no problem with shutting the water off whilst soaping up and then turning it on again to rinse (this was required for showers when I was on a submarine)...except that it sucks having to readjust the cold and hot water to get the temp right when turning the water back on—to the point where I don’t turn the water off.
If there was a valve with an off switch, so that you didn’t have to readjust water temp when you turn the water back on, this would not be a problem. Maybe there already is such a device...don’t know, but it would save a heck of a lot of water.
Some places already do this—the H Ross Perot (science?) museum in Dallas recycles its water: the recycled water is tinted blue to avoid piping it to the water coolers...
Local water treatment (outside the scope of the municipal waterworks) is a somewhat recent trend among the environmental elite...