Sewage pipes handle liquid waste, except sewage, for environmental health reasons. Drain pipes in homes and other facilities can be made of wood, metal, or plastic. Waste pipes may need to drain into separate containers for safety reasons, and typically drain into larger pipes for treatment at wastewater treatment plants. Clean wastewater can be discharged into the natural environment or reused in industrial processes.
A sewage pipe is a pipe designed to carry liquid waste, except sewage, which is handled by a different plumbing system for environmental health reasons. In homes, drain pipes drain washers, sinks, dishwashers, and other plumbing fixtures. In other facilities, sewage pipes can handle a wide variety of liquid wastes, again with the exception of sewage. Wastewater is a special subset of liquid waste that must be handled with care because it can contain microorganisms that can cause disease.
A wide variety of materials can be used to make drain pipes. Historically wood was used, and examples of wooden drain pipes can still be seen in some communities, especially bamboo pipes in parts of China and Japan. As people became more skilled at metalworking, materials such as lead and copper began to be used, whereas plumbers today tend to prefer plastic. Plastics are cheap, easy to work with, and very easy to bend or elbow together so they can fit into tight-fitting spaces.
The drain hose can be rigid or flexible, depending on how it is used; flexible drain pipes are sometimes used, for example, to drain washing machines into large sinks, allowing people to soak in washing machines without having to make major plumbing changes. The same technique is also sometimes used for dishwashers, with connections at the sink for fresh water and a hose placed in the sink to drain the water when the dishwasher is running.
If a waste pipe will be used to handle waste that may be contaminated with chemicals, as might be seen in a facility such as a photo lab, it may need to drain into separate containers for safety reasons. This is designed to keep hazardous chemicals out of wastewater treatment plants, with companies specializing in that type of waste collecting and treating them. Likewise, a toilet waste pipe is also treated differently from waste pipes connected to other plumbing fixtures.
Typically, a waste pipe is designed to drain into a larger pipe that collects wastewater for treatment. The water is passed through a wastewater treatment plant to extract impurities before being released. Clean wastewater can be discharged into the natural environment, used for landscaping, or reused in industrial processes where absolutely clean water is not necessarily needed. Some industrial plants even have their own treatment plants to treat wastewater.
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