In this research traditional Buddhist dietary life style was studied as an alternative for both saving water and decreasing water pollution from household. A traditional dietary life style for the Buddhist monks, called Balwoo Gongyang, and its modernized one for citizens, called Dish Gongyang were examined with water use amount, wastewater quality and pollutant loading rate, and were compared with the kitchen wastewater from household. And several types of natural detergent were also examined to compare their effect on the wastewater quality and pollutant loading rate.
This research was carried out using the wastewater from Balwoo and Dish Gongyang in J building located in Seoul. Wastewater generation from Balwoo Gongyang that was about 1.0 ℓ/capita/day was very low compare to that from dish washing in normal household(32.6 ℓ/capita/day). In case of Dish Gongyang, water generation was 1.8 times higher than that from Balwoo Gongyang, but it was just 1/19.2 of normal household.
When the wastewater quality of Balwoo Gongyang was compared with the kitchen wastewater of normal household, SS was 1/16(15 mg/ℓ), COD was 1/7(22.1 mg/ℓ), BOD was 1/9(24.1 mg/ℓ) and T-N was 1/16(1.7 mg/ℓ). Pollutant loading rate from Balwoo Gongyang was very low, COD 18.0 mg/capita/day, SS 12.3 mg/capita/day and it was 1/290, 1/639 of that from dish washing wastewater from normal household, respectively. Pollutant loading rate from Dish Gongyang was also low 1/13(SS)∼1/144(TN) compared to dish washing wastewater from normal household.
As a natural detergent, used water from washing rice showed very low pollutant loading rate. It was concluded that Dish Gongyang that was a modernized and simplified dietary life style of Balwoo Gongyang, was very eco-friendly. Especially when it was combined with natural detergents using by-product from cooking process, its effect on the water pollution was very low.