It’s in the Toilet

My dear friend in Ottawa announced several weeks back—on Facebook—that she had bought a dual flush toilet.  I remember seeing these all over East Asia, especially in Korea and Japan.  It makes sense, right?  Smaller flush for #1, and well, a bigger flush.  That’s actually how I figured out the Chinese characters for “big” and “small.”  I’m surprised this never caught on in California, but concern over the drought, and rebates, are slowly changing how we flush.

If you’ve grown up in California, you probably remember the jingle, “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.”  Okay, gross, I know.  But it’s up to citizens to reduce their water consumption.  You know the story:  only 3% of our surface water is fresh water, “water will be the new oil,” and a leaky faucet can equal obscene amounts of water wasted at an annual rate.  So changing your toilet, or rigging an older toilet (the older the toilet, the more gallons wasted per flush), will lead to huge water savings:  and a decrease in your water bill.  I found an online calculator that gives you an idea of what your household water consumption could be.

Check with your local water utility to see what types of rebates are available, whether it’s for a toilet or other appliance in your house.  LADWP has a program--I think—once again an LADWP link is currently not working . . . or it’s been flushed down the toilet as well .  .  .

Well, the moral of this story is that . . . we are proud owners of a new a dual flush toilet.  It was delivered last week, and will be proudly displayed (though not demonstrated, we’re conserving water, remember?) in our new remodeled bathroom.