I don’t know why this author frames it this way. Recycling greywater is an old technology. People in Tuscon pioneered municipal laws to allow this, which then

I don’t know why this author frames it this way. Recycling greywater is an old technology. People in Tuscon pioneered municipal laws to allow this, which then spread across Arizona. Blackwater treatment comes in many forms — your septic tank with a leach field is an example. The Earthship folks out in Taos, NM have designs that recycles residential water at least five times for years. There are permaculture sites that have been doing this, and advocating for this for years. There are commercial sites recycling greywater here in Arizona. A major outlet mall here in Phoenix. Intel’s fab in metro Phoenix (there’s even a slide deck!). The new TSMC fab in Phoenix will use similar methods. It’s not as if a startup invented all of this. These can all be accomplished with fairly low tech. It isn’t even an “extreme” decentralization. If people want to get into “extreme” decentralization, there are also: onsite composting, onsite food production (such as perennial food forests), integrated pest management, etc.