Message in a bottle: Personal water reduction
We all know about the impact of water use on the environment. If you are not aware then pop over to my future post on the subject (LINK when availible) to understand why this is so important.
For our tiny house we’ve been already looking at waterless toilets. There is a whole website dedicated to this: https://compostingtoiletsusa.com/product but they aren’t the only vendors. Like the ones from wayfair SLCATL320 which is doing us some real favors here for by only being ~$120. Odd that part of their marketing strategy is “(Seat Included)” but I’m glad it is. One vendor on Amazon is selling Alpcour brand
Another option is the more expensive Nature’s Head at $925
For tank type toilets there is an EPA WaterSense spec which companies can have their toilets independently verified to certify the toilet provides high efficiency with low flush volume. As part of the spec, toilets are also required to have their flush volume displayed.
YIf you have this certification it means you comply te, but there are federal limits on the amount of water you can flush: https://www.epa.gov/watersense/residential-toilets
The toilets in our apartment have been modified with a bucket tank to reduce the water usage (and thus the impact on the sewage system of the complex.)
I can’t recommend this for personal use without consulting a plumber because flush requirements are set and tested, so ours sometimes will have some flow back even if you’re holding the handle down the whole time. Now that I live in an apartment, I can no longer just pee in some dark corner of my property, or off the porch. Conserving water took a more creative approach. It didn’t seem reasonable to swap or modify the apartment toilet with a composting one (for me at this time) but I still found a way to save some water with the use of a Gatorade bottle. I used to try to hold my pee for as long as possible to conserve water, but even then I was still flushing 6-8 times per day. I kept feeling this horrifying feeling that I was personally creating the water crisis. At my job the urinal are 0.8 Gal/Flush, and if I take this conservative estimate i’m using 6 x 0.8 = 4.8 - 6.4 Gal/day or x 360 = 1728- 2304 Gal/Year just to pee.
So thanks to the ability to work from home I now save around 2K gallons/year by peeing in a bottle, and flushing it in batches when I poo. I can recommend this for personal substantial water savings, as long as you can do it accurately and in a sanitary manner :)
If your toilet conforms to the 1.6 Gal/Flush and you have a bird bladder like me you could save more than 4000 Gal a year (3456-4608)