eli5 Is there a reason the waste water like from showers can’t be filtered through pipes and used for toilet water?
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There is a reason.
What you are refering to is called grey water. Black water is the toilet. Grey water could be used for the toilet. But it would be cloudy, might smell, might carry bacteria and viruses, and would stain the toilet.
Some of those can be partially or fully eliminated (like bacteria and viruses, you can add chlorine or use an UV lamp with various level of success).
Some can be eliminated by adding a full filtration system, like the cloudy water. This get expensive fast.
You then need a storage tank for that grey water, which take space.
And you need a pump. And some floats. And valves… In short a not that complex system, but one that will break every few years.
Clean water is cheap enough that it is not worth the trouble.
Interessingly enough, you would be better to reuse that grey water for irrigation instead. You only need a gross particulate filter (and not a complex one) as to not block the pump or the irrigation nozzles and pipes. Plants don’t care about bacteria and viruses, and most soaps are fine. And some of the junk in the water will ends up decomposing and fertilizing the ground. This is therefore a better solution. But you still need to deal with a tank that need cleaning from time to time and all the system failures along the years…
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