if its brown, flush it down. If its yellow, let it mellow.

[brunes]

Water is not an unlimited resource, contrary to popular belief

Actually, yes, it is. It is extremely difficult to take water and pollute it to an extent that it is is not cleansed by simple evaporation. To do such a thing the binding force between the H2O molecule and the polluting molecule woudl have to be great enough to overcome whatever their different sublimation points were, so that as gases they would not be miscible but continue to be bound together so that when the water condensates and falls as rain it would still retain the pollutant.

I don't know of ANY pollutants offhand that could do this. There are lots of airbourne pollutants that will mix with water and fall with rain (for example those that cause acid rain), but these compounds are a result of air pollution, not water pollution.

[Bazooka Joe]

I'm curious about those that say they don't get a ring. Even leaving urine in the toilet for 10-15 minutes a day means I get a ring.

Here's how I know:

I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom and then take a shower. I used to let it sit during the shower so that the temperature in the shower didn't need to be changed after the toilet tank filled. I got rings in the toilet regularly. This being said, I don't clean my toilet all that often.

I switched it, I now go to the bathroom and flush, wait a few minutes (feed the dog) and then shower - no more ring.

How often do you guys who don't get a ring clean your toilets? And what do you clean them with? Do you use any 1000 flushes etc. type products?

[hellodan]

zomg, i'm eating lunch and almost puked reading part of this thread >XD

[joshmxpx]

I'm curious about those that say they don't get a ring. Even leaving urine in the toilet for 10-15 minutes a day means I get a ring.

Here's how I know:

I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom and then take a shower. I used to let it sit during the shower so that the temperature in the shower didn't need to be changed after the toilet tank filled. I got rings in the toilet regularly. This being said, I don't clean my toilet all that often.

I switched it, I now go to the bathroom and flush, wait a few minutes (feed the dog) and then shower - no more ring.

How often do you guys who don't get a ring clean your toilets? And what do you clean them with? Do you use any 1000 flushes etc. type products?

we flush out toilet maybe twice a day, once in the morning and once when we go to bed, unless someone does number two.

i have never had a problem with rings, unless some real nasty yellow urine is in there overnight.

i don't use any special cleaning/pucks products and i'll maybe swish the brush around the bowl once a week without using any product in it, toilet still looks brand new as far as we can tell.

every two weeks or three we'll actually clean it with some bowl cleaner and scrubbing, but its not like it needs it, still looks clean imo

[eelfliw]

Where are the "organic food" people? Come on out and support this thread!!!

Organic food usually means no chemicals used in growing the food. That means no chemical pesticides and no chemical fertilizers. Years ago, when organic food first came out on the market, the fruits are puny and vegetables are half eaten by bugs. Some veggies even comes complete with little green worms (because they didn't wash the worms off).

Now, organic foods are better. Fruits are bigger and vegetable leaves stronger. Gone are the days when eating organic food means suffering.

How is this related to less flushing? Well, years ago I was invited to a friend's house for dinner and they grow their own vegetables in the backyard. It's fall harvest season and they invited friends over to share the harvest. The veggies are VERY TASTY!!! Nothing compares to tomatoes & spinach & carrots plucked from the ground just hours before eating.

After dinner, the host reveals the secret to their awesome vegetable garden. The flush toilets in their home is only for guests. They don't use flush toilets. So there are no rings, no smell and they don't even clean their toilets unless they have guests. They do their thing in a bucket in the backyard shed. They collect this all year round and use it to fertilize the vegetable garden. That's why the food tastes so good. And yes, we've been eating the product of their excrements and enjoying it.

So, the next time you buy organic food, just remember that you're eating someone else's sh1t and paying top dollars for that sh1t. And yes, you are also helping to save water in the toilet.

[astroboi]

How about getting a urinal for every household? Or using the sink?

[MegaSilver]

"We got a little rule back home: if it's brown, drink it down; if it's black, send it back." ~ Homer J. Simpson

[Keelie]

i have to agree with those who say it leaves a ring in the toilet if you dont flush.
hubby was in the habit of not flushing for a while, and the toilet was always dirty! yuck, no thanks, i'll flush.

besides, sometimes the cats drink out of there. i like to leave the lid up because the little one plays so much that she spills the water dish... if i'm not around i want them to be able to have access to water at all times.

[Diskdoctor]

Actually, yes, it is. It is extremely difficult to take water and pollute it to an extent that it is is not cleansed by simple evaporation. To do such a thing the binding force between the H2O molecule and the polluting molecule woudl have to be great enough to overcome whatever their different sublimation points were, so that as gases they would not be miscible but continue to be bound together so that when the water condensates and falls as rain it would still retain the pollutant.

I don't know of ANY pollutants offhand that could do this. There are lots of airbourne pollutants that will mix with water and fall with rain (for example those that cause acid rain), but these compounds are a result of air pollution, not water pollution.

Yes it's possible to purify water but the method you're suggesting - evaporation takes vast amounts of energy. (2230 kiloJoules to evaporate a kg of water at 100 degrees C plus 4.2kJ for each degree celsius you have to raise the temp to get it to 100 degrees)

A liter of gasoline can give you about 34600 kJ of energy so to purify the 326 litres of water that the average Canadian uses per day using this method would require the equivalent of nearly 24 litres of gasoline!

Now I suppose one could set up a system whereby some of this energy was recovered but evaporation is an impractical method for purifying water on a large scale. Only in the Middle East where water is scarce and energy cheaply available do they use this method to extract fresh water from the ocean and you can bet they're more careful with their water use than we are.

In any case I'm not sure why I bother to address this because evaporation is not the method used by water treatment plants in Canada. It takes energy to clean water, transport it to your house, and then to clean it up after you've dirtied it up. So at the very least by cutting back on water use you're cutting back on energy use. Energy is certainly something we don't have an unlimited supply of.

[Spidey]

I can only assume that none of you have lived with a septic system and a water source other than "city" water. Many, many people live this motto. No chemical toilet cleaners are required, no yellow lines in the toilet and no urine smells either. Water is not an unlimited resource, contrary to popular belief. We got so used to living this motto while on the farm with a septic and well water that we still do it now that we're in the city.

We just moved this weekend, and we now have septic and a cistern. So I'm defintly following it more. Even in the city I did, so it wont be too hard to do.

The idea of running out of water is a worry to me. I'm thinking of buying a water tank and utility trailer so I can haul it myself instead of having to rely on a water hauling company. That way I know Im getting my moneys worth

We upgraded our old washer and dryer to the new front loads that use less water as well, and have been considering upgrading the toilets to those new dual systems, when we finally get settled.

Do you know the average cost of these. This new place has for bathrooms. Although Im telling my boys if you have to go number 1 and your outside, just use the closest tree ;-)

[Diskdoctor]

Our whole flush toilet system is bizarre when you think about it. The cycle goes like this:

1) take water from a lake or some aquifer
2) filter it and add chemicals to purify it so it's drinkable
3) pump it to your house
4) urinate/defecate in it
5) filter out the urine/feces
6) do some more purificaiton
7) send water back to the lake
8) repeat

Why composting toilets aren't widely available I don't know.

[Spidey]

I always get a kick out of people who go to such an effort to save 4 gallons of water. What difference do you think it makes that you save 4 gallons of water once a day when you take a piss, when your municipality shoots TENS OF THOUSANDS of gallons of the stuff A DAY into the streets every spring via the hydrants to clear the sediment out of the system?

Repeat after me - Water is not a scarce resource. It is totally renewable. 70% of the planet is covered with the stuff. It is trivial to extract fresh water from seawater using nothing but the sun, people have been doing it for thousands of years. Lack of fresh water is a human issue, it is not a planetary issue like climate change.

The global water problem is nothing but a energy and distribution problem. Water conservation is important in areas where fresh water is expensive to procure, but not in Canada. Saving a minute amount of water daily by stinking up your bathroom does nothing to help the planet overall.

because if you have a cistern that only holds 2500 gallons, you have to fill it up more often.

[Eldorado]

Pee in the shower..

[st7860]

Pee in the shower..

http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/...-1548616.shtml

[brunes]

because if you have a cistern that only holds 2500 gallons, you have to fill it up more often.

Yeah but what you're talking about here is a practical problem. Has nothing to do with the environment.