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New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

phys.org

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Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#131

Post by adrianN »

HorizonXP wrote: post #47
newen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...so to solve that, you would put this stuff on the ground so that shit slips easily into the nearest river?

I think you're deliberately misrepresenting what I meant. The current PM of India campaigned on a "Clean India" effort to tackle open-air defecation by building millions of toilets. Now, you can argue the efficacy of this effort, but arguably, the entire scheme requires adequate means to actually flush the toilets, which requires water, which requires infrastructure. All I meant is that efforts to minimize the amount…

Composting toilets seem much better suited for locations with scarce water, or scarce water infrastructure.

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#132

Post by adrianN »

stephenr wrote: post #51
tigerlily wrote: post #9

What is this stuff made from? I hope they think of the fish, that's all.

Raw sewage probably isn’t that great for fish either.

Raw sewage is well known to decompose in the environment into harmless things. Unlike the majority of chemicals we invented in the last 100 years or so.

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#135

Post by kortilla »

ac29 wrote: post #126
gpm wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do live near the great lakes, but my comment about not worth optimizing is really just that as a percentage of global water usage toilets are tiny (compared to agricultural and industrial. Agricultural is 80-90% in the states for instance). Optimization only really makes much sense where locally that is false. There are definitely plenty of deserts in the world though, so it's not much of a nitpick.

> Agricultural is 80-90% in the states for instance Actually, irrigation uses less than 40% of water in the US. The largest use is thermoelectric power generation. [0] [0] https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3035/fs20183035.pdf

Interesting. It’s not like water used for thermoelectric cooling becomes compromised. In many cases don’t they just return it directly to the supply after it cools down?

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#136

Post by xnyan »

hanniabu wrote: post #19

Why don't we use grey water to flush toilets? It can use water either from the bathroom sink or shower.

The cost of additional plumbing is not small. Also, what is the source of grey water? If it's your house drainage, when you rinse chicken blood or poop or one of the other many nasty things people rinse down the drain, now it sits in your tank for an undermined period of time?

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#137

Post by [deleted] »

xnyan wrote: post #136
hanniabu wrote: post #19

Why don't we use grey water to flush toilets? It can use water either from the bathroom sink or shower.

The cost of additional plumbing is not small. Also, what is the source of grey water? If it's your house drainage, when you rinse chicken blood or poop or one of the other many nasty things people rinse down the drain, now it sits in your tank for an undermined period of time?

[deleted]

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#138

Post by xnyan »

tjohns wrote: post #55
hanniabu wrote: post #19

Why don't we use grey water to flush toilets? It can use water either from the bathroom sink or shower.

Japan has this... a common design is to have the bathroom sink drain directly into the toilet's water reservoir, so the grey water is used for the next flush. No changes to plumbing needed, since it's all built into the fixtures. Admittedly, there is a bit of a psychological hurdle to washing your hands in the toilet, even though the water is isolated and perfectly clean. (This could be solved through clever plumbing…

If your hands are particularly dirty (a very possible use case for a sink) do you flush after? Genuinely curious.

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#139

Post by gnicholas »

robocat wrote: post #121
fireattack wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only use toilet twice a day? Keep in mind you need to flush after pee too.

> Keep in mind you need to flush after pee too. When you only have restricted water, you shouldn't flush after peeing. There's even a saying to help conserve water this way: "If it's yellow, let it mellow".

you left off the ending: "if it's brown, flush it down".

Re: New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water

#140

Post by hvidgaard »

ac29 wrote: post #126
gpm wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do live near the great lakes, but my comment about not worth optimizing is really just that as a percentage of global water usage toilets are tiny (compared to agricultural and industrial. Agricultural is 80-90% in the states for instance). Optimization only really makes much sense where locally that is false. There are definitely plenty of deserts in the world though, so it's not much of a nitpick.

> Agricultural is 80-90% in the states for instance Actually, irrigation uses less than 40% of water in the US. The largest use is thermoelectric power generation. [0] [0] https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2018/3035/fs20183035.pdf

The majority of that water is surface water - that is only used for consumption if there is no suitable groundwater reservoir, and it is returned. So the environmental impact is less that irrigation as that removes the water from the source.
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