Do Waterless Urinals Really Save Water?
I really like no-flush urinals, and I’ve been promoting them in my talks about water conservation and efficiency. But this article from a newspaper in Arizona makes me wonder whether they’re ready for prime time: Doubts swirl over effectiveness of no-flush urinals.
The article has quotes from two of the leading minds in the water efficiency world.
Mary Ann Dickinson, executive director of the Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency, a nonprofit that promotes water conservation, fears no-flush urinals will fizzle and deter other water-saving innovations just as underperforming low-flow toilets did in the early 1990s.
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Al Dietemann manages a regional utility consortium in Seattle called the Saving Water Partnership that in 2002 started offering rebates to commercial water customers for installing no-flush urinals. The rebate program ended after Dietemann determined that more than half the 200 urinals installed under the program were removed by their owners within three years. Maintenance issues and costs were the main reason, he said, and involved all brands of no-flush urinals.
I just finished reading the excellent book, The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters by Rose George, and this story sounds familiar. She discusses the backlash against so-called “efficient” toilets that were mandated by federal law in 1992. The law was ahead of the technology, and American manufacturers weren’t ready to start making low-flow toilets that worked well, even though they had been the norm in Europe and Japan for years. The backlash by consumers created a black market for toilets from Canada, where toilets still used 3 ½ gallons or more per flush. People rightfully demanded, “If I have to flush two or three times, where’s the savings?”
When humor columnist Dave Barry wrote a piece called “The Toilet Police” in 2002, he tapped into a vein of populist resentment that lives on to this day. Despite the fact that today’s models are far better than ones sold ten years ago, grudges die hard and there are many that still want the federal government to “stay out of our bathrooms.” (Amazingly, this story still has legs, based on a reference in the NY Times.)
For water saving fixtures and appliances to deliver on their promises, they need to do more than just save water. I agree with hot-water evangelist Gary Klein that most people inherently want to save water, but care even more about comfort, convenience, cleanliness, style, ease of use, and low maintenance. This is how we should really be marketing water-efficient devices.
As Ms. George describes in The Big Necessity, the Japanese figured this out decades ago, creating toilets that not only use less water, but give you a refreshing spritz, play your favorite music, and can even take your blood pressure and monitor your health.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from installing waterless urinals. We need innovators and early adopters. I think they’re a great technology in the right setting. But perhaps mass market adoption is still a few years away.