Attention Men: Don’t Flush, it Wastes Water – When You Pee Think About the Environment
Many old government buildings have plumbing fixtures that have been around for decades. Public office buildings, that seem to rise into the clouds work on the theory of “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Who knows when in the last century that toilet in the stall was placed in service and continues to work just fine. The only problem is every time you push down on the chrome handle your sending as much as 6 gallons of good clean clear water down the pipe and out through the sewer system with these old out of date fixtures.
Flushing after your morning constitutional is one thing, but wasting that much water just to cycle your six cups of coffee through the system is downright inconsiderate. Don’t forget, for that clean water to get there in the first place it’s pumped, filtered, processed, and even fluoridated at great expense to the taxpayers.
As recent as 1994 most newly installed toilets used 3.5 gallons of water per flush. Today currently manufactured toilets by law must use 1.6 gallons or less water per flush. Replacing those long out of date toilets will save you many dollars in sewer charges plus it’s a good conservation move for the future.
The Dual Flush toilet can take you to the next level. It gives you two options. Press button #1, for number one, and press button #2 for number two. The first button flushes with .8 gallons of water and is meant to follow a liquid deposit. Button number 2 will give you the full legal flush of 1.6 gallons of water. This portion can handle more solid material.
We’ve made great strides in the effort to conserve water and reduce the waste of our most precious resource. There is one more final step in our mission to conserve water in the bathroom. This involves the use of urinals.
The old urinal has been upgraded as well. Beyond low water usage there are now No-Flush, Waterless Urinals that still dispose of human waste as well as eliminating odor. This type of urinal can save up to 45,000 gallons of water annually.
Along with saving water they also do away with plumbing problems. How often have you walked up to a urinal to see the water continually running down from the flush valve. Leaking or broken valves can run that water bill up higher then the Empire State building. With no moving parts there is no valve to break, no seals to wear out.
How the Waterless Urinal works is an interesting read, servicing is as simple as pouring in 3oz of a special blue chemical. With no repairs needed down the road we have finally reached full potential in our efforts to conserve water.
Now the rest is up to you. The next time your suffering from a bashful bladder at the urinal just remember, Size Doesn’t Matter, being conscious of environment and conserving water does.