Epic Cleantec is harnessing the used wastewater from San Francisco high-rise buildings in what could be the future of recycled water.Looking out from a downtown San Francisco rooftop, Epic Cleantec co-founder and CEO Aaron Tartakovsky says you can actually see the future of recycled water.
Epic Cleantec is harnessing the used wastewater from high-rise buildings, and giving it a second life, with a dizzying array of technologies."So we're taking that wastewater and we're turning it into clean water. We're turning it into high-quality soil amendments, and then we're actually turning it into energy.
"We take water that looks like this when it comes into our system, and then we take it through our process and it comes out this way. Technically drinking water but by regulation non-potable," says Pully.And while the company says the water is more than pure enough to drink, by state regulations, it's currently used only for applications ranging from toilet flushing to irrigation to cooling laundry systems.
Samples are on display in the company's garden on site. As are toilet-shaped planters and other reminders of the closed-end strategy that the company says can help buildings reuse up to 95% of their wastewater. With three major San Francisco projects, either completed or in the works, CEO Aaron Tartakovsky believes their strategy is already at a tipping point.