A Straight Flush

The modern day flush toilet has probably saved more lives than any idea that medicine has come up with in 700 years. At the beginnings of city level civilization, waste disposal was the limiting factor of population growth because without a sanitary method of human waste removal, the population would get sick and slowly die, poisoned by it’s own waste. Imagine walking in modern day New York near the Empire State Building, where 25,000 chamber pots would be emptied over the course of a few hours. This image, while a little disturbing and disgusting, is a valid one: tossing the chamber pot’s contents out the nearest window used to be the waste disposal method for hundreds of years. Modern day water facilities began from two ideas; namely, to preserve the cleanliness of the drinking water supply without poisoning it, and to get the waste off of the street level and under it. As cities grew in economic importance and size, more clean drinking water needed to be made available, and more waste had to be disposed in a manner that would be cheap, efficient, and safe to the population.
History shows us that civilizations had flushing facilities centuries ago. The Harrapan civilization on the Indus River had flushing toilets in every home, while the Romans also used flush toilets even in their public bath houses. The modern -day flush toilet was a group effort to improve the mechanics and seal by several different inventors, each taking the idea and improving it even more. However, the flush toilet as we know it has been fairly identical since 1907, when Thomas Stewart patented the vortex-flushing bowl effect, which cleanses the bowl after each use. The problem with the flush toilet is not one of use or mission; the problem is that we use too much water when we flush. How can we maintain our sanitation protection from human waste and still reduce the amount of potable water we use displacing it?

‘It’s My Potty, And I’ll Cry If I Want To!’

Before 1992, flush toilets had the ability to remove waste products from the home and office using only 3.5 to 5 gallons of water per flush. While this seems to be a pittance to rid the home of detritus, multiply 4 flushes per person per day. That is 20 gallons of water a day, 600 gallons of water a month, and 7300 GALLONS of water a year per person. That is a lot of water spinning down the bowl for a few ounces of waste. The low flush or low volume toilet was prepared to do the same job using only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. With potable water being an irreplaceable resource, the switch to low flush toilets was a quick way to be environmentally friendly; in addition, government mandate carved this number in porcelain. All the new toilets installed in new or remodeled homes were limited by law not to exceed 1.6 gallons per flush as of 1992. What have we learned in the last 17 years?
Well, to start with, low flush toilets using a gravity system did not work very well at removing every scrap of waste from the bowl. Although the toilets worked fine, there was a sense of incompletion when there wasn’t the loud, satisfying roar of a really good flush, so some homeowners that had been responsible citizens and installed low flush toilets resorted to flushing twice or three times to rid the bowl of any remaining waste. This was not actually saving any water. With the newer technologies of pressure-assisted flush toilets, this problem has largely been fixed. Japanese manufacturer Toto has been at the forefront of designing the new ultra-low flush toilets, equipped with everything to bidets for washing the bottom, hot air dryers for drying the bottom, and a button that when pushed makes a loud flushing roar to give that satisfying climax to the daily constitutional. Dual flush technologies use two different settings for waste removal, with a lower volume of water for urine waste and the standard 1.6 gallons for fecal matter, meaning you push 1 for 1 and 2 for 2.

So, What Can I Do To Help?

Water conservation is a paramount concern for everyone. From large urban areas who are trying to minimize waste water runoff to the single home septic tank user, low flush toilets are reducing the amount of waste water thrown into these systems and improving our quality of life and environment. A few other things we can do are :

* Twice a year, use an enzyme to clean your septic tank. This helps the system operate effectively, and reduces the amount of water needed to push the waste water through the system.
* If you have an older toilet, you can displace some of the water using a full 1/2 gallon jug of water or a few bricks in the tank. This eliminates some of the water in the system.
*Every six months, check your bathroom appliances for leaks. Dripping showerheads and faucets and a leaky flapper can add up to quite a bit of water waste.
*Collect rain water in a barrel under your gutter spout. Use this water to water plants and brown spots on your lawn
* Wash your car on the lawn. This way, the car gets washed and the lawn gets watered all at the same time.
*When washing clothes, only wash full loads, or adjust the load indicator on your machine to reflect the amount of the load.
*Hydrozone your flower garden, placing plants that require a lot of water separately from plants that thrive in drier conditions.
*Every day, pick one glass to use for drinking, and stick with it. The fewer dishes you use, the more water you can save.
* A 3 minute shower uses a lot less water than a 10 minute shower. Try turning off the shower intermittently between soaping up and rinsing off.
* If you take baths, gain some weight. Fill up the bathtub while you are sitting in the tub, so your body can displace the water so you will need less.
* Guys, learn to shave by feel instead of relying on a mirror. This way, you can shave and shower at the same time. Or, have a significant other shave your face while you shave her legs. This saves water, and adds trust to a relationship; however, if you were late coming home the night before, you might want to skip this part.

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