Want to Cut Down on Water Use? Install a Urinal!

Image: KC Star

Today, the Kansas City Star talks about something that’s been on my mind for years. A few years ago I visited the home of a friend of mine, as I had done on many other occasions. However, this time, when I asked to use the bathroom we were in a different part of the house and, accordingly, I used a different rest room.

Much to my chagrin, in the rest room I found a toilet and a urinal. Now, I knew this family was not particularly concerned about the environment. In fact, even though I knew the urinal would use less water, I assumed its installation was a fashion statement on the part of the reasonably weathly home owners.

To be honest, I didn’t quite get it. Being a man, I guess I associate urinals with the bathrooms in grocery stores and Tokyo subways, and never expected to see one in a clean, private environment. Nevertheless, from that point forward, I decided that my own home would have a urinal.

Of course, I completely forgot about all that until I saw this newspaper article. On a basic level, urinals use about 1/3rd of the water used by most new flush toilets. That’s a pretty significant difference. However, when there exist other options such as rainwater capture and greywater reuse, which can both be used to flush toilets, is a urinal really the best option?

Not only do urinals cost alot in plumbing, design, and initials purchase, but it’s not practical to add one to every restroom. Sure, I can walk down the hall to take a shower, but do you want to go up and down stairs or to the other side of the house just to save a gallon of water?

As far as convention goes, urinals are definitely less threatening than rain water recycling, but perhaps less ecofriendly. What do you think?

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