What You'll Need
- Toilet/Urinal (for guys)
- Toilet (for gals)
Instructions
Step 1: "Upload" your food/water wastes into the toilet/urinal
Step 2: If it's brown, flush
Step 3: If it's yellow, don't flush
Step 4: Flush once a day, regardless.
Step 5: GUYS: Ask your school/workplace to install waterless urinals. Guys or Gals: get a dual-flush toilet for home, or get a toilet top with a "mini sink" which runs water for you to wash your hands while filling up the tank. Otherwise, get a composting toilet!
Step 6: WASH THOSE HANDS!
Money saved: Potentially $100s of dollars per month (business)
Water saved for drinking instead of flushing: Priceless!
Adam W. says:
Ken, I think you are priceless :)
Diana Budds says:
If it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down
Ivan S. says:
So, what do you do:
a) when guests are over at your house
b) when you're a guest at someone else's house!
For me, it depends. Most people in the country, especially older houses in the mountains or islands, everybody just goes outside, or lets yellow mellow. In the city or suburbs, I feel kinda sketched out doing this if I don't know what other people think.
Ken O. says:
I think we will transition quickly, given that California will receive just 15% of its normal water allotment starting next year.
That, acccording to the state water agency this fall.
It is better to prepare in advance than try to play "catch up" later during an acute crisis.
Ivan- I'd say (a) let people know what your policy is, regardless of your relationship with them, or simply post a sign in the bathroom; and (b) if they tell you it's okay or likewise have a sign up in their bathroom then it's A-Okay.
I think the Flood Building should put in waterless urinals... it will save them $ thousands per month, with payback within a couple years I would think. Maybe cities will one day require this, in addition to using "gray water" or rainwater harvesting to flush sewers.
I'd expect a forward-thinking town like Arcata or Berkeley to start this.
Lynn L. says:
There are other ways to save water that make a real difference without making such a...personal impact. For example, in most single-family homes, between 30-70 percent of a home's water use is applied outside, on landscapes and pools. So only using the sprinkler system two days a week can save over 1,000 gallons a month. Using a broom instead of the hose to clean a sidewalk or patio can save up to 150 gallons each time.
Also, there are new toilets that use pressure-assisted flushing or the dual-flush concept that use less than one gallon per flush. These dual-flush toilets, popular in Europe and Australia, have buttons or levers that allow the user to choos a short or long flush.
Ken O. says:
Lynn-- Thanks for the idea and keep those ideas flowing!
Better yet, we ought to ban private lawn watering altogether AND raise rates 300%. when there is money to be made (or lost) people move very quickly. look at china/india, silicon valley or wall street. water is too precious a resource. we can't let wall street and goldman sachs in particular reap the benefits of water privatization... goldman recently put out a report on imminent water shortages being an investment opportunity, so watch out.
but neither do we want a free-for-all nearly-free water distribution system (which is what we have, due to our political system). in this scenaior (our current one) we all end up drinking sea water on the coasts because we've overdrafted our groundwater. and for what? to water golf courts and everyone's suburban lawn, my relatives included. (working on that.) this is insanity, and many coastal california and east coast/gulf coast cities are in danger of saltwater intrusion into deltas, because of excessive diversion of snowpack/rainwater to numerous large agriculture/industrial/residential customers. nuclear plants require constant cool water flows.
with climate change drying out the western US, nuclear power may have to go the way of the dodo. there goes some of our slightly(?) less fossil fuel reliant power.
collectively, as you can see, we are proving that humans are no smarter than yeast in a vat of grape juice or hops mash... partly due to all our manic lawn watering of desert cityscapes...and that includes most US cities, when you look at future water supplies vs population trends. the parties and counterparties to the rivers in georgia/florida/alabama are fighting over water all over again recently.
communities and regions must re-organize themselves around WATERSHEDS, instead of our archaic notion of "states" - california, nevada, utah, etc.
If we organize around watersheds, that gets us working together to preserve a common resource.