FLUSHING OUT PUBLIC BATHROOMS

Recently, there has been a great deal of movement involving public bathrooms after the federal government issued "guidelines" that would enable users in public schools to access public toilets based upon the gender with which they identify instead of the gender specified on their birth certificates.

Schools, public institutions and businesses face the prospect of accommodating these or similar guidelines. Issues of privacy or even safety could arise with multi-stall restrooms previously designated by "original" gender, such as "men" and "women." With movement to so-called transgender facilities, multi-stall toilets likely will be phased out in favor of single-user restrooms.

It has been reported that one large airport plans to remodel its public restrooms to convert them to single-user rooms which will be labeled separately for woman, child, man, transgender and wheelchair.

Single-user bathrooms formerly known as as "unisex" now are said to be called "gender neutral" or "all genders."

Creating new public single-user bathrooms to accommodate perceived gender identity could conflict with another important cause--control of climate change. All the resulting remodeling construction and energy demand could contribute to global warming. Accordingly, toilets and climate change may merge into a global issue.

Another issue is what to call single-user facilities. They can be called "bathrooms", but no one can bathe in them. They can be called "restrooms", but no one enters them to rest. They can be called "water closets" or "WC", but no one goes into them to obtain water. They can be called "powder rooms", but there is no powder in them. They can be called "toilets", but the room is not a toilet. So, in addition to the issue of gender identification, there also is an issue of room identification. Perhaps, a solution for both issues could simply be to have a door with a question mark.

The ultimate concern may be whether the federal government should be involved with who can use a public toilet. Thirteen states have filed suit against the guidelines contending that public bathrooms are a matter only for state and local law. In an opinion released August 21, a federal judge in the litigation temporarily enjoined the federal guidelines, finding that, in effect, they were binding regulations, and that the government failed to follow applicable procedures for adoption of regulations.

Admittedly, the federal government already regulates toilets. However, a quick reading of the U.S. Constitution fails to disclose an enumerated federal power to regulate their usage.

SHOULD EPA REGULATE YOUR URINATION?

What's in your urine? Generally, human urine contains three macro-nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Typically, urine comprises only about one percent of residential wastewater streams, but it contains about eighty percent of the nitrogen, fifty-five percent of the phosphorus and sixty percent of the potassium, as well as other nutrients such as sulphur, calcium and magnesium.

According to a recent report, attention now is being focused on the harvesting of such nutrients by means of "urine diversion" ("UD"). * UD is the separation of human urine from the wastewater influent stream at the point of urination. Interest in UD appears to be growing because urine can be used for agricultural fertilization and because at least two of the nutrients--nitrogen and phosphorus--when discharged from wastewater effluent contribute to over-enrichment of waterbodies. In particular, such over-enrichment causes algae blooms which result in adverse impacts on aquatic life.

Residential UD systems will require installation of urine diverting toilets and separate piping to channel urine to a storage tank somewhere in the front or back yard. Generally, a UD toilet has a split personality design, with a partitioned bowl. The front section of the bowl receives urine, which along with a small amount of water is flushed to the urine storage tank. On the other side of the partition, the back half of the bowl collects feces and toilet paper, which is flushed to the regular wastewater sewer the old-fashioned way or can be sent down a chute to a different tank in the basement or yard for eventual composting. In public buildings, urinals would be connected to UD systems.

While residential UD systems may have benefits, one wonders how practical is the design of a UD toilet. Specifically, a user necessarily will need to have accurate aim to make sure deposits reach the correct compartment of the toilet bowl. Such aiming could cause issues for some users. In addition, some homeowners may not appreciate having a urine storage tank in their front yard. However, the UD tank could be disguised by yard decorations, such as a small windmill, a small pagoda or a plastic deer, and some perennials.

One wonders whether implementation of UD systems in a step forward or a step backward for humankind. Would it be simpler just to walk into the garden and urinate on the tomato plants or the zinnias? Or in an urban setting, would it be simpler to empty a chamber pot out the window on to the street, where the accumulated flow eventually would be flushed from the streets into appropriate destinations? Possibly, houses could have mobile urination outhouses, disguised as potting sheds, that could collect urine and discharge it to different parts of the yard to nourish grass and plants.

UD systems, and their installation and use, would seem to be a likely subject for regulation by EPA. Water saving toilets and other water appliances already are regulated in some fashion by the government. Perhaps government grants can be made available for retrofitting UD systems in neighborhoods. Best to be pro-active and start practicing your aim.

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*See Emerging Issues, Spring/Summer 2014

TOILET PAPER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

In March, Consumer Reports reported that it tested toilet paper and found that rolls have become narrower, the tubes in the center of the rolls have become larger, the number of sheets per roll have become fewer and the sheets have become smaller.

The toilet paper rolls were tested for strength, softness, disintegration and ease of tearing. How the toilet paper was tested for these conditions is unclear. The various brands of rolls ranged in cost from 8 cents per 100 sheets to over 44 cents per 100 sheets.

In a prior post, I discussed the challenge one faces to find a beneficial use for the empty cardboard tubes once the toilet paper roll is used up ("NO END IN SITE OR SIGHT", May 29, 2013). If the tubes have grown in diameter, that task may have become more difficult. On the other hand, the larger tubes may be useful for growing seedlings by handy gardeners this Spring; or better yet, the tubes may make good beer bottle or can holders to enhance bathroom or other experiences.

Interestingly, the report also stated that Americans use an average of 46 sheets of toilet paper per day. Again, it is not clear how this finding was determined. Perhaps it was as a result of a question at the last census or something to be reported on an IRS form. Regardless, now I am worried that I am not an average American because I use far less than 46 sheets of toilet paper per day.

Then I got to wondering whether the number of sheets used per day has any relationship to climate change. Is it possible that in warmer periods, people spend more time in bathrooms and use more sheets; in in colder time, people use fewer sheets because they spend less time there?

The more I think about empty toilet paper tubes and number of sheets of paper being used, the more likely I could wind up two or three sheets to the wind.

NO END IN SITE OR SIGHT

Recently, I stumbled upon this sign in an Illinois antique shop my wife and I were hunting. Made of stainless steel, it is vintage, probably from a 1940s or 1950s passenger train coach. This sort of sign would have been a common bathroom sight on trains of that era (or even later) in the United States and other countries.

I had to have that sign! It kindled flashbacks to my long train ride , with hundreds of other Boy Scouts, from LaGrange, Illinois to the 1953 Jamboree in what is now Irvine , California. Boys will be boys, of course. Long train rides can be boring at times. Accordingly, signs such these became invitations rather than prohibitions. Many a flush occurred in stations along the way, much to great juvenile joy. But wait, as they say on many TV commercials. The really great fun happened when a coach was standing over a highway as the rest of the train was in a station. The sign said nothing about flushing over a road crossing. A flush over a highway produced an effect similar to the sight of a person leaving a bathroom with paper stuck to a shoe--only in this case, it was stuck to tires.

Passenger train toilets at that time essentially had straight pipes directly to the tracks. As a result, tracks tended to become above ground septic systems. In our travels to England in the 1980s and 90s, I recall standing on local station platforms gazing on toilet debris on the tracks--not a welcoming experience. But for people on the platform, the site simply was unpleasant. For railroad workers, who walked, inspected and repaired the rails, it must have been just awful.

Today, presumably, passenger trains in the United states and most countries, collect bathroom waste into tanks below the coaches. So, another tradition gives way to modernity. And, a sign becomes an antique and only flushes a memory. Maybe I will hang it in our bathroom and see what happens.

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM?

A recent magazine article sparked my attention. Its title read: "7 Things To Make With Toilet Paper Rolls." What a crafter's challenge! Just what can we do with those empty rolls after the toilet paper is fully used?

It appears that toilet paper wrapped on rolls is a relatively recent invention, tracing roots to the last half of the 19th century. Frankly, the technology has not advanced much since then. Basically, as most of us know, segmented long sheets of thin and often abrasive paper are coiled around a cardboard roll. Thus, after all the paper is removed for use, one is left holding the cardboard roll.

The magazine article offered some creative uses for the empty roll. For example, it could be used to hold wrapping paper together-a roll on roll, if you will. Or, it could be used to contain an electric cord; or seed could be glued to the outside of the roll, and it becomes a bird feeder.

Inspired by these examples, I conjured up some other possible uses:

* Several empty rolls could be strung together to make a garland for a Christmas tree.

* Rolls could become containers to hold candy treats to be given to Halloween trick or treaters.

* Rolls could be used to hide jewelry and other small valuables from would be thieves.

* Horizontally, rolls could be used as napkin rings at more formal dinners, when cost is an issue.

* Vertically, they could be used for place names at the dinner table, when guests are deemed unimportant.

* Rolls could be made into home made English Christmas crackers, when the real things are too expensive.

* Roll could make fine beverage holders on airplane trips, for those who drink their wine or spirits straight from the small bottles.

* Following current trends, rolls could become virtual currency for various transactions.

Because empty toilet paper rolls may have a carbon footprint, and could clog landfills or even sewers if discarded inappropriately, perhaps the best solution is regulation by a federal governmental agency. The Toilet Paper Empty Roll Control Act (TPERCA, for short) could be enacted by Congress to authorize EPA to regulate the size, composition, use and disposal of empty rolls. Rolls and their uses would have to meet strict compliance standards. Users of toilet paper would file monitoring reports with the agency. Any use or disposal of a roll would require a permit.

Accordingly, regulation again would provide a happy solution, for we all certainly would know what to do with our rolls.

CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK

Recently, I read that a city in Washington has paved sidewalks with a concrete mix containing crushed toilets. The city calls the mix "Poticrete." The toilets were repurposed from retrofitted residential housing authority buildings.*

The story provoked my thinking about toilets. For example, why are almost all toilets white? Most cars today are said to be white because they are more readily seen. Dinnerware frequently is white to better show off food. So, why are toilets white? Of course, in the 60s and 70s, toilets often came in colors, such as blue, yellow and brown-what were they intended to show?

Toilets can differ in ways other than color. An outhouse has only a cutout in a board, crawling with spiders and other varmints. In Europe, they seem to have devices where one cannot find the flush handle. In Russia, the toilet can be only a hole in the floor surrounded by dazzling mosaic tiles. In the United States, modern toilets seem more like hungry shop vacs.

Something I have pondered for years: why are rooms with toilets called "restrooms?" Does anyone actually go to a restroom to rest? I did work one summer as a student for a company where some employees often went to a restroom to sleep in a stall to avoid working. Increased incidents of hemorrhoids were reported.

In Europe, restrooms often are called "water closets." But, they are not closets at all, and toilets are rarely found in closets. There was one exception, We once stayed in an apartment in a central European city, where the toilet was in a tiny closet--a fact which I discovered when I inadvertently opened the closet door to hang a coat on the nose of the occupant.

Why are toilets called toilets? Why are they sometimes called "stools?" Webster's dictionary provides a definition of "stool" as "a seat used as a symbol of office or authority." There may be a political meaning somewhere in that.

Another perplexing thing is toilet water. We flush toilets to dispose of toilet water. But when we call it "eau de toilette" we pour it on our bodies.

Old toilets may become remnants of civilization's history. Long in the future, archaeologists may be studying pieces of concrete with chips of toilet--like fossils of early, extinct life--trying to figure out what devices called toilets were. Maybe they were some sort of calendars, or storage vessels or cooking implements, they may speculate. Or, maybe they simply were the thrones of great leaders.
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*(Water Environment & Technology magazine, May, 2012, P.31)

TOILETS: AT THE SEAT OF TECHNOLOGY?

A hot topic today, along with the debt ceiling, climate change and weather, apparently is the toilet. Suddenly, something that seems to be useful but mundane has become quite exciting.

One of the lesser publicized achievements of the recent, and last, voyage of the shuttle Atlantis was the astronauts' testing of the "baggie system." This system is intended to recycle sweat and urine on the mission into drinkable water. It has been reported that the system can make about a litre of "sports drink" in 4 to 6 hours. The energy potential for such drinks in sports and politics may have no limits.

This month, the Gates Foundation announced a new program to "reinvent the toilet." A spokesperson for the foundation acknowledged that there are no silver bullets in reinventing the toilet. Given the price of silver, that is understandable. The concern, of course, is that over 2 billion people in the world are said to have no access to flush toilets.

A university scientist who received a $400,000 grant from the foundation is reported to have developed a solar-powered portable toilet as a solution. The sun powers an electro-chemical reaction to break down water and waste into hydrogen gas that in turn could be stored in fuel cells to provide energy for cloudy days and night use. In one of those useless catalogs that clog one's mailbox, I once saw an automatic toilet seat that went up or down depending on use and user. I wonder whether sun power could be used for that, too.

All this news again causes me to reflect upon the cottage outhouse days of my faded youth. The outhouse worked on both sunny and cloudy days and at night. It required no maintenance except for some painting, which was my job. It also provided shelter for many spiders and other varmints. Frankly, the current "modern" toilets sometimes frighten me. They remind me of the system of pneumatic tubes that were used to send messages to different departments in department stores years ago. The toilets today flush with such a whoosh that it causes me to fear loss of flesh were I not jump up quickly.

And so the mundane can be exciting.