A level of water quality intended for human consumption does not seem necessary for domestic uses such as irrigation of green spaces. Alternative water supplies like the use of greywater (GW) can thus be considered. However, GW contains pathogenic microorganisms and organic compounds which can cause environmental and health risks. As the risks related to recycling are unknown, GW treatment is necessary before reusing. To describe the risks related to GW reuses, the scientific approach performed in this study was to characterize domestic GW in order to select an appropriate treatment. The biological process chosen is an aerobic fluidized bed reactor. As this process has never been developed for GW, an optimization step based on the study of its hydrodynamic behavior and the kinetics of biodegradation of GW was performed. The treatment performances were then determined. The treated GW produced in this study reached the threshold values expected by the French regulation for irrigation of green spaces with treated wastewater. Indeed, the COD and the TSS obtained in treated GW were respectively 26 mg O2.L-1 and 5.6 mg.L-1. The fluidized bed reactor has been used to treat 144 L.d-1 of GW for 16 months. Three lawn plots were irrigated respectively with raw GW, treated GW and tap water asa reference. Contrary to the lawn plot irrigated with raw GW, the risk analysis performed in this study has shown no significant difference between the law plot irrigated with treated GW and the one irrigated with tap water. This study shows that treated GW produced from the fluidized bed reactor developed in this experiment can be used for irrigation of green spaces.
