Okay, let’s get a little nerdy, but I’ll keep it fun. The membrane is rolled up like a toilet paper tube that’s been on a diet. You feed water in one end, and the pressure pushes it through this spiral labyrinth.
How Reverse Osmosis Works | Living Whole
The water that makes it through is called permeate—that’s the good stuff you drink. The water that doesn’t make it? That’s brine or reject water. It’s basically concentrated gunk that gets flushed away. Yes, you waste some water to make clean water. It’s like paying a bouncer a fee to keep the riff-raff out.
Here’s the killer joke: your RO system wastes about 3 to 4 gallons of water for every 1 gallon it makes. That sounds terrible, but relax—most of that reject water goes right down your drain. It’s not like you’re hoarding it in a secret pool. Plus, modern systems are getting better, so thank you, engineering wizards.
