Even if you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard people talk about the importance of caring for our planet. We all like to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, and we’d all like to look at a clean landscape rather than one full of litter.
Everyone wishes that animals could live in a fresh ecosystem. We only get one planet, so we should take good care of it! There are many simple things we can all do to improve our air and water quality and to reduce our energy use. When you use glass and plastic containers, recycle them.
Choose reusable water bottles and coffee mugs over disposable varieties and remember to turn off the water while you brush your teeth. Did you know that you can also conserve water with every single flush of your toilet? In this article, we’ll talk about low-flush bathroom toilets and why they’re one of the best ways you can conserve water and care for the environment.
WHAT ARE LOW-FLUSHING TOILETS?
A low-flush toilet is one that uses less water than older models. Did you know that toilets are the appliance in your home that consumes the most water? Your toilets use more water each day than your laundry and showers!
Low-flush toilets came on the US market in the 1990s as a way to comply with new government regulations requiring that toilets use less water in each flush. Initially, low-flush toilets were not very effective at lowering water consumption. Many 1990s models simply had smaller tanks with no other design modifications, so homeowners had to flush multiple times to wash away waste.
Large cities where many homeowners have adopted high-efficiency toilets can have issues in the city sewer pipes because the ratio of liquid to waste in the pipes is too low, which causes the pipes to back up. Manufacturers are now addressing this by using smaller-diameter drain pipes to increase the force of water flow, which reduces the number of solids that stick in pipes.
HOW DOES A LOW-FLUSH TOILET WORK?
So, how do they work so that waste washes away effectively in a single flush? Modern low-flush toilets use gravity, pressure, or a combination of the two, to clear waste.
When you press the lever on your toilet, the flapper inside the tank lifts and water rushes from the tank into the bowl, using gravity to push your waste down the pipes.
Modern toilets also have smaller pipes, which maintains high water pressure throughout the flush. Some appliances create an air pocket inside the tank so that when you flush, the air pushes water through the bowl and pipes. As the tank refills, so does the pressurized vessel in the tank.
YOUR TOILET CAN HELP SAVE THE PLANET!
Traditional toilets can use between 5 and 7 gallons of water with each flush. If you upgrade to a high-efficiency toilet, you can lower your water use to just 1.6 gallons per flush.
You could also choose a dual-flush model that uses 1.6 gallons of water for solid waste and a mere 1.3 gallons of water for liquid waste. Another easy way to conserve water is to flush only bodily waste and toilet paper.
If you put facial tissue, wipes, or feminine products in the toilet, you’ll have to flush multiple times to get them down. Plus, none of those are designed to disintegrate in water like toilet paper, so they have to be filtered out at your local wastewater treatment plant, which consumes energy.
Low-flush toilets are a great way to save water and energy, but there are SO many other things that you can also do, many of which cost you no money at all! Conservation doesn’t have to be costly or complicated. So, what will you do today to help save the planet?