Low flush toilets are creating more problems than they are solving. The water that passes through them has been proven not to be large enough. Making toilets generates massive volumes of unnecessary Co2. Old toilets need to be recycled. Plumbing within buildings needs to be changed to work at astronomical cost. The taxes you pay are necessarily higher to pay for the subsidy they ultimately goes back to a morally- questionable, air-polluting, toilet-maker. The cost of a simple mechanism is less.
Over the last few years low-flow toilets have been popularized as have dual flush toilets. Life is not as simple as we’d like, and the experience of the people has born that out. Low flow toilets have proven to be more trouble than solution, and no matter how many independent studies prove that they use less water, that doesn’t change the reality that some other parts of the engineering of waste disposal plumbing is not designed for the job.
The first issue, now solved, was moving the solid waste out of the toilet bowls. Use of 6 liter tanks on toilet bowls designed for 13 Liter tanks was the cause of the problem. This meant the toilets were being flushed multiple times more than the old ones which turned out to consume more water, and those same toilets frequently clogged. The responses were swift, an engineering firm was hired to say which toilets did work. Cartoon show makers made merciless fun of toilet making companies and governments involved. Predictably the toilets that didn’t make it onto the list were modified or done away with. Did the toilet makers pay back the innocent governments and consumers for their shoddy products? Was that honest?
The second issue is the water flow in the pipes beyond the toilets within older buildings. The pipes have a certain slope, and size that was engineered at the time the building was built. In the very recent past, toilets held 13 liters in their tanks, and in the more distant past they held 20 and 28 liters. The vast majority of plumbing is engineered around the assumption that those larger amounts of water would be used. So what happens when a smaller amount of water is used? The solid waste lies there in heap and clogs the pipe. The cost of changing the slope of the plumbing in existing buildings is astronomical, which is why it is not taking place. The cost of unclogging drains is equally astronomical but nobody’s talking about it…except me.
The third issue is the Greenhouse Gas emissions from making toilets. Toilets are a form of pottery, made of clay and silica. A quick search of the internet using the words “Air pollution pottery” will bring up staggering images of people living in smoke so thick its deadly. Airplanes can’t land in those areas because the visibility is less than ¼ ,mile due to the smoke. Other horrendous truths like, asphalt and old tires are used as fuel by some pottery makers. Finally there is the use of very poor quality coal is the primary contributor to air pollution. Its all off-shore of course. So while you may have a new 6 liter toilet, which may save some water, the Co2 that has been made while it is being dried, fired, glazed, and transported will poison the oceans, and do other unpredictable environmental damage. This is the point that staggers us most: How do governments which officially say they want to do something about climate change remain so unaware? Is the toilet making lobby really worth that much money?
If you have to have a toilet, and you want a lower water bill then the answer is a dual flush toilet mechanism. The mechanism weighs about a pound. It allows the full flush to carry the solid waste away like it always has, and reduces the amount of water used to create a rinse flush for liquids. No un-necessary Co2 is created. No toilets need to be recycled. No plumbing within buildings needs to be changed. The cost of the mechanisms is less. The taxes you pay don’t need to be as high. The toilets won’t clog.
Tags: dual flush toilet, low flow toilets, making a toilet, problems with low flow toilets