Apparatus for purifying waste water and air in an indoor environment

DETAILED DESCRIPTION This invention pertains to the field of waste water treatment apparatus, especially to apparatus for control and treatment of environmental pollution using house plants.
The apparatus of the current invention is designed to purify and recycle waste water inside buildings utilizing low light requiring house plants in addition to removing air polluting substances during this process.
The ability of house and office plants to remove indoor air polluting chemicals from sealed chambers is now recognized.
Such plants are of particular benefit as they require significantly less light and space than those plants utilized in typical outdoor biological treatment facilities.
In such outdoor and industrial treatment facilities aquatic plants are utilized for biological purification; such plants can be completely submerged in water.
House and office plants can be used for such purification, and require less light and space, but most house plants will not live when their roots are completely submerged in water.
Typically house plants are planted in individual containers which are filled with some planting medium, typically a clay.
These containers are supplied with a limited water supply to keep the roots and planting medium moist.
The inventive apparatus is a container for holding the waste water to be treated together with a liner for receiving and holding an individual removable pot in which grows a house plant in a planting medium, typically expanded clay particles.
The design of the container sets a constant interior water level.
The support for the pots and the design of the pots then established the depth into this water level to which the growing medium and root structure of the chosen purification plants is immersed.
INterlocking lips between the pot and the apparatus seal against the escape of odor producing gasses.
The apparatus thus permits a wide variety of chosen house or office plants to be used, providing optimum growth conditions for any chosen plant.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a structure for treating and purifying waste water in an indoor environment