THE JETSONS’ KITCHEN. A ZERO-MILE SYSTEM FOR WASTE WATER RECYCLING AND CULTIVATION

The book aims to investigate the up-cycling of domestic effluents for plant produc-tion, bringing together a series of considerations by an interdisciplinary group of re-searchers from the Politecnico di Milano, Università Statale di Milano and Universitàdi Roma Tor Vergata, ranging from biology to design through sociology and architec-tural composition.Integrating vegetable cultivation in the domestic environment with reusing kitchenwastewater for irrigation is a promising strategy for reducing freshwater consump-tion, limiting the amount of wastewater to be treated producing healthy plant foodand, ultimately, raising environmental awareness among citizens. A first step in thisdirection is the experimental project to reuse dishwasher effluents in living spaces(kitchen, household, and community level), as described in the book. Dishwasher ef-fluents were chosen as an initial bench test because of their high nutrient content, lowharmful elements and constant wastewater quantity and quality, where treatmentmay consist of a combination of several chemical, physical and biological processes.Studies for the development of a domestic biofilter containing a consortium of mi-croalgae and heterotrophic bacteria are also presented.