What do Harvard and Yale Universities, Eastern and Western Connecticut State Universities, the Vermont National Guard, Delta Airlines (in Logan Airport, Boston), and Camelot Cruise Lines based in Haddam, CT, all have in common?If you said they are all in New England, you’d be right. But all of these entities share something else as well, although not quite as obvious. They’ve all gone waterless—that is, they have installed urinals that do not use water or require flushing in some if not all of their men’s restrooms.The installation and use of waterless urinals is slowly spreading throughout North America as more and more facilities, large and small, seek new ways to cuts costs, improve hygiene, use less water and energy, and become more sustainable. And in most situations where they have been installed, facility managers and building occupants have come to appreciate them and their many benefits.Consider the fact that the average urinal in an office building or school is flushed approximately 2,000 times per month. Each flush of a recent-model urinal requires the use of about 1.0 to 1.5 gallons of water. This means that just one urinal uses as much as 35,000 (to 40,000) gallons of water per year—enough to fill a large swimming pool.And this is even less water than urinals used to use. Before 1990, most urinals installed in North America consumed about three to four gallons of water per flush. Federal, state, and local laws enacted about 15 years ago, limited the amount of water a urinal can use per flush significantly.But many of these older urinals are still in use, and even the newer, less-water-consuming urinals use huge amounts of potable water. This is becoming less and less sustainable, especially in often drought-stricken areas of the country such as Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Southern California, and, as of late, some states on the East Coast as well. In addition, all of that water and urine must be disposed of. It is transported down drains and sewers where it must be treated by costly-to-build and -maintain local sewage-treatment plants.Waterless, or no-flushing, urinals have benefits other than just saving tremendous amounts of water: * They cost less to install because they require no plumbing supply lines. * There are no handles to touch, preventing the possible spread of germs and bacteria. * They do not require electronic sensors. * They have no moving parts.Waterless urinals also tend to be easier to clean and maintain than conventional urinals. Most are made of highly finished, very smooth liquid-repellent surfaces. Because urine is softer than water and does not adhere to these surfaces, and because no water is used, there are fewer deposits or stains left on the urinal, which can require scrubbing to remove. Usually, all that is required is a general-purpose cleaner applied with a cleaning cloth or sponge.
RK
Waterless Urinals may save water, but the replacement cartridges are very expensive, and replacing when they fail ( usually due to someone dumping something in the urinal) is the most thankless, stanky, vile job imaginable. In heavy use, unsupervised commercial bathrooms an automatic deoderizer is a must. I would never put these in a school or dorm. A 1/2 cup flush unit is a much better option long term. I think the people who love these so much have never actually done the hard work of maintaining them.