If it's yellow let it mellow...or flush it b/c it stinks?

Question

I want to be good to the Earth, you know, Global Warming and all...what should I do? I realize this is wide open for wise answers...please refrain = )

Answer 1

I answered a question like this one recently.  I currently live in Idaho, high mountain desert.  This part of Idaho is now in its 7th year of drought.

I practice the old" If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down" thing.  Especially in the master bathroom, so no guests to our home will be "suprised."

I use the bathroom an average of three times ever night.  We have old toilets I figure are the 5 gallon flushers.  So that is 15 gallons at least every day.  Or 105 gallons a week.  Or 5460 gallons of water saved a year.  I've lived here over four years.  In four years that is at least 21,840 gallons of water saved.  We are on our own well, and septic system.  That means I'm not running electric to pump our water from 200 feet down either.  So yes it really does help.

By the way, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where fresh water is EXTREMELY abundant.  My last house in WA was also on it's own well and septic system.  In WA, there can be so much moisture in the ground that keeping some of that extra water out is also bennificial.  

So it works in both wet, and dry climates.

If you desire to flush every time, there are still things you can do.  Get a few bricks, and set them in the bottom of your toilet tank.  Every time you flush the bricks have displaced a certain volume of water with their own mass.  So if you have one brick, you save one bricks volume of water ever time you flush.  Of course you might find it works to put 3-5 bricks in your toilet tank.

If you are on your own septic system, do be cautious.  Septic systems are designed to work on a certain volume of water.  People can actually be TOO water thrifty and dry their septic tank out, which causes MAJOR problems.  However if you have a wash machine, or dishwasher going to the septic tank you shouldn't have any worries.

Now a comment about urine stinking.  I worked in the medical field for over 15 years.  Urine should not stink.  If it stinks, you are not drinking enough fluids yourself.  Then your body builds up too much waste in your urine, and it smells.  Drink more fluids.

Some medications can cause oder in urine.  Not much to do about that, if they are needed medications.

Urinary tract infections or bladder infections can also put oder into urine.  You need medical treatment for either one.  Bladder infections are actually quiet serrious, and can make you very, very ill, but you may not have any of the burning sensations usually found with a urniary tract infection.  

Yet another option....you have an unusually sensitive nose for a guy.  Most men do not have as good a sence of smell as women do.  If this is the case, but bricks in the tank.  Then flush every time guilt free.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

I highyl recomend you to flush your toilet after you go because if you have wife/kids they won't aprove of your decision and what if your high school friend pops by and wants to use ur luu?

Answer 4

America's "Inconvenient Fraud" - he's the environmental activist whose 20-room mansion and pool house devour nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year - more than 20 times the national average.

His name - Al Gore, the Academy-Award winning producer of the pro-global warming fraud, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Answer 5

Keep it healthy no need to make it nasty.  For the sake of your own health, flush the toilet after using it.  Or you'll need some chemicals to clean it anyway, and more often.  You can never flush the toilet too much, and it won't affect the weather.

Answer 6

Who even says this kind of question. You flush your c**p when your done, thats a given. End of story.

Answer 7

back in the 70s, most folks in calif did that.

and we all survived just fine.

with the water rationing that's already been mandated here, we'll be doing it again.

sometimes, the "stink" varies, depending on the amount of water in the bowl.

urine tends to be a bit heavier, and sink, if the bowl is large enough.

in that respect, having a low flow toilet is not always advantageous, because there tends to be less water in the bowl.

Answer 8

The flush toilet system is a major culprit in using far too much water. Ideally we might be using a composting toilet to avoid this horrible waste of water.

When we use water to move f***s and urine, the water  gets messed up, then we try to separate out the solids so that they can be composted a bit.

But the water stays messed up. Its only practical use being to irrigate cropland. We even hate to have it used for those purposes because we are so careless about what else we put into that sewage stream.  

We start off this discussion having no hint as to what you can do. So much is dependent on where you are, whether the water you waste is being reclaimed, or perhaps going straight down the river to the ocean.

If your waste water is being fully recovered, as for instance used for irrigation or filtred to reenter the aquifer, what you should do is make sure your neighbors and you put nothing into the sewer that you would not want to return via your aquifer, or return via crops irrigated.

If your waste water is being flushed out to sea, you may want to get involved politically to ensure that your water is better used.

If you can do it, consider going for a composting toilet.