Commuters in Osaka reduce their environmental pee-print

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Commuters in Osaka reduce their environmental pee-print

by Josh Loposer (Subscribe to Josh Loposer's posts)
Aug 11th 2008 @ 2:31PM

Filed under: Health, Home, GreenTech

Because we never can seem to get enough bathroom humor -- and the fact that the Nanakai Electric Railway in Osaka, Japan is saving 22,000 metric tons of water this year with its 73 new waterless urinals -- it looks like the water-free toilet movement really does have something to go on. Wait, that came out wrong. Research conducted by UCLA supports the idea that waterfree urinals might bee a good way to combat future water shortages.

Composting toilets and chem-urinals have long been a badge of honor for serious environmentalists and conservationists, but only recently have waterless urinals broken into the mainstream. These waterless urinals use a replaceable cartridge which uses an oil-based liquid to filter urine and trap odors, sending the filtered urine back into the normal waste stream. According to UCLA's study, along with saving water and the CO2 created by water treatment, microbial growth rates are no greater with waterfree urinals than with the normal flush type.

[via Treehugger]

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8-11-2008 @ 4:07PM

Ben Brown said...

I was out at training for VISTA volunteers last year in the desert southwest and mentioned that many facilities in Michigan had low flow shower heads, low water consumption toilets and that a growing number had waterless men's urinals. Several of the southwest residents were incredulous that we should allow the restriction of our water use when we were surrounded by water. "Its your right to use as much water as you want, don't let anyone fool you into giving up your water so someone else can use it. .. we HATE government control!!" They didn't get many of us around the Lakes feel the RESPONSIBILITY to conserve the water of the Great Lakes for future generations. The no flush urinals work fine and is one intelligent design. I don't mind leaving water for future generations. Its the greedy and thoughtless consumption that bothers me.

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