While there are certain types of wastewater that are easy to give a name to and view as a unique entity, like sewage, hospital wastewater, or fracking water generated by oil and gas production, there are countless varieties of wastewater. Nuclear power generation also produces its own challenging version of wastewater that is typically treated on site.
Many industrial processes use water and can result in a contaminated by-product. These types of wastewater can have any number of chemicals, additives, or contaminants. Wastewater produced by residential/domestic sources are generally created by the same few water-usage activities. These are the common everyday things we do in our homes and non-industrial businesses that consume water like: showers, bathroom activities, cooking, washing hands, washing dishes, doing laundry, and brushing our teeth.