I am interested to get people’s thoughts/perspective on this.
In Australia there is a rapidly growing market for small (kilolitres rather than megalitres a day) grey water and blackwater recycling systems for office buildings and residential estates. It is interesting to see that the design/fabricate/install/operate industry serving this market is still dominated by small players, mostly owner managed firms operating on a regional level.
We had a recent case in Queensland of a successful small business going bankrupt through trying to grow too quickly.
I will be very interested to see how this industry matures. Is there something about decentralised systems that makes them inherently suitable for small businesses to deliver? The margins are relatively small compared to large projects, and perhaps the customisation required means that it is difficult to reap the benefits of economies of scale.
This could be an important question. Climate change drivers make centralised systems start to look less attractive, and decentralised water/wastewater systems could start to take significant business away from the major utilities. Will we see utilities move into this space? Will a major private sector environment business start to buy up small firms? Or will it remain a cottage industry?
Posted by Andrew 
