Toilet flushing ethics?

Question

My ex - who has the kids 90% of the time - abides by the maxim:

If it's brown, let it drown.

If it's yellow, let it mellow.

For those of you who are not au fait with this maxim, I will inform you that it translates as: If it's poo, flush the loo. If it's wee, let it be! Hey I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!

Now don't get me wrong. I know the environment's important but there is a hygiene issue here. When I go to MY toilet, there is a smell of rancid wee. I'm not sure what the environmental advantages are of not flushing your toilet so often but whatever they are (please tell me) do they outweigh the hygiene issues involved in not flushing away bodily waste products.

When I go for a poo, I end up flushing the toilet before and after I go. I flush it before because I don't want to get splished by my kids' wee that has been stewing there for the last 4 hours. Capito?

Hope I haven't been too graphic but it's hard to approach the subject without being.

Thank you!

Answer 1

First of all you should avoid using water for all of your natural elimination functions.  Your entire family should go wee wee out in the yard on a shrub or any other suitable item.  Next, poo poo....I encourage my family to poo poo in a 55 gallon steel drum that is covered by a hermetic membrane when not in use.  At the end every week I open up the drum and drop a Willy Peter (a white phosphorus chemical munition) grenade into it.  

White phosphorus is a chemical weapon with two different uses. In its "conventional" use as a tool of war, white phosphorus provides illumination and smoke cover for soldiers in combat.  During the battle of Fallujah in November 2004, the United States used white phosphorus in "shake and bake" missions to flush out insurgent positions.  It is great for destroying poo.

Answer 2

The environmental advantage of flushing the toilet less, is less water used.

Answer 3

Odors generally indicate the presence or some form of gas which enters your nose as you breathe. Not something I want to deal with all the time.

In the mens bathroom in a lot of government and commercial locations you have a choice of a toilet, or urinal. Well that urinal uses very little water to flush compared to a toilet. There's nothing stopping anyone from installing one of these in our homes for the men to use. The courthouse in our area has urinals that do not have handles to flush them with. Instead, they are all connected to a single toilet tank which is controlled by a timer that flushes it every hour. I have never smelled a bad odor around them. I often wonder though if when the courthouse is closed if they keep on flushing? I mean obviously that would be a waste of water to have them flush over 48 times on the weekend when no-one is in the building.

Here's an option: give him a milk jug with a lid to keep in the bathroom. tell him to pee in it, then whenever he takes a c**p, dump it and flush the toilet. This avoids the odor problem, and allows him to not flush the toilet.

Answer 4

Pee is sterile, and assuming your toilet is relatively clean it shouldn't be unsanitary to your bottom should you drop a splasher.

It does save water, not flushing after a mere pee. I myself pee outside whenever possible. Being male has its environmental advantages i guess. And as things go i would say you are a poet!

Answer 5

I'm sorry but people should always flush after they're done doing whatever business they had, haha. I hate to come to a toilet and seeing someone else's excess body fluid in the toilet.  People who care about the environment are going to hate me because even after I blow my nose, I flush the tissue down the toilet. =)

Answer 6

Not sure how it is done, but there are commercial toilets that have a "2-way" function, push lever up for "liquid waste", push lever down for "solid waste". This is an excellent solution to the problem.

What is needed is a two chamber tank for the home. One lever to operate a smaller flush using less water, and a second lever to operate both chambers for a larger flush. (If they are not available, you can tell your friends that you first heard about it here -- anyone want to work with me on this project?)

Teach your children to flush after each use because it shows respect for the next user and it reinforces the concept of "cleaning up after yourself" instead of having someone else clean up after you. Why pick up your clothes off the floor and hang them in a closet if mom (or dad) is going to do it for you?

Sure, water is an issue, but hygiene and good manners are worth the "cost" of a little water.

As an addendum -- make sure the toilet tissue rolls from the top and not the bottom, it really does save on tissue!

d

Answer 7

I am sorry but I am going to flush the toilet no matter what anyone says.

there is one tip that I use when there is a water shortage, fill a half gallon milk jug wit water and rocks and put it in the water reserve at the back of the toilet, and that will reduce the amount of water used in flushing.

where I live now, our water is metered, but there is not a shortage, our water comes from the river, 3 miles up stream from the ocean and what doesn't get used just end up in the ocean anyway.

Answer 8

That is the nastiest thing I have ever heard. I wouldn't want my kids around that filth, Disgusting, you should flush the toilet every time, no matter what! And teach your children to do the same, I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to look at or go near a filthy bathroom.

Answer 9

This is not really an environmental issue....not all environmentalists live in the woods and chop down their own wood and hunt their own food. (a bit of sarcasm there...)

You should absolutely flush each time you use the toilet and if you are not teaching your children that...then I can guarantee you that they will learn to do that when they enter school!

Answer 10

I flush whenever I use the toilet. Sometimes if it's one of those stupid underpowered lo-flow toilets I'll flush multiple times to get everything down.

Answer 11

You know I was brought up on a farm with the saying if its brown flush it down if its yellow let it mellow, so I never took to much notice of the health side of things strangely enough, that is until you asked this question and brought it to every ones attention, yes it is fine caring about the environment and water conservation but you know when is all said and done you are absolutely right, if it has the possibility of affecting your health then that is one environmentally friendly practice I think we all should stop doing, and no your question wasn't to graphic.  

Answer 12

To expound on Dylan F's suggestion: Organic fertilizer is, as all environmentalists know, p**p. So just have your kids go outside and p**p in your garden! You and your husband should also do the same. We won't peek, honest!

You know, except for a few gallons which are in the space station, every single droplet of water that ever existed since the beginning of time on planet earth is STILL HERE!

When we use water it goes back into the environment.

Answer 13

As an environmentally aware person, I'm giving my two cents worth here.

I really can't stand the idea of using a toilet that hasn't been flushed properly - that's just downright unhygienic!

I always flush, the difference being that for liquids only, you only need a half flush (stop the toilet halfway through).

If you don't want to think about this, you could either install a new dual flush toilet or have your existing one retrofitted with a dual flush mechanism.  This way you don't use so much water after all.

If you really still want to save more water, why not send the kids into the garden to do the number 1?  Just make sure they use a different location each time to avoid overrunning one area with urine.

The bacteria in the soil will break it down in a short time.

(Just a suggestion ;-)

Oh, nearly forgot!  There are also composting toilets that you could have installed, but these are a bit more complicated.

Answer 14

Having lived through a drought and water rationing I'm very familiar with the It it's yellow let it mellow. We are now facing a similar water situation and if we don't get a lot of rain and snow this winter we will be a the same situation we were in 30 years ago. Water conservation is important, with only 2% of the water on the earth suitable for drinking it makes no sense to be flushing our waste with driniking water.

When we were forced to ration, it was against the law to water your lawn, wash a car, have a water in a fountain or showers after PE at school. We lived an entire year with the rationing with the threat of going over and having our wate shut off. We went an entire year with pee sitting in a toilet shared by 6 people and we never got sick. An air freshener was necessary.

I commend your husband for recognizing the waste, and if you truely can't deal with the yellow, I suggest you get a dual flush toilet that uses less than 1 gallon to flush the yellow. Or just deal with a little smell and know you are doing the right thing.