31. Living Machine

The Living Machine uses the processes of nature to cleanse and recycle the Botanic Garden's waste water.

Used water from the kitchens and toilets is channelled away into a settlement tank, anaerobic digester, closed aerobic tank and clarifier. These are built into the hillside next to the Living Machine.

From the viewing platform in the Living Machine, you can see a series of tanks planted with reeds, sedges and willows. These thrive on, and clean, this nutrient-rich waste water. Don't worry, it doesn't smell here and the strange gurgling sounds are produced by air that is pumped into the cleaned water to add oxygen. From the Living Machine, the purified water is then soaked up by trees destined to be fuel for the Biomass boiler (see below). Elsewhere, excess rainwater is channelled into the lakes and irrigation water is drawn from 90m deep boreholes under the Great Glasshouse and the Circle of Decision.