It seems that water problem will be one of the top topics in TINK3 competition. Yesterday I read a great article by Hemant Jain - Are you ready for Water Wars?
In Hemant poster we can read: It is estimated that 2/3 of all humanity will face severe water shortage by 2015. By 2050, this shortage will affect the antire world's population. Even now women and girls are spending 2000 million hours every day collecting water.
Jodi Bush (on 11th April 2010) asked a question: "Nevertheless we still use drinking water in our toilets?!?! Crazy. We should be using grey water at the very least."
I agree. It's crazy. Few weeks ago I read article about Student of the Art Academy of Latvia, Kaspars Jursons. He presented his ''Pie reizes'' (English: ''At Once") urinal concept. At Once = Sink + Urinal. As unsettling as the idea might seem to the men out there, the idea here is to save on water by combining washing your hand and washing the bowl. Washing hands it flushes away the other ''waters''. Kaspars design was presented at Stockholm Design week 2010 and also received ''ADwards 2010'' first place Order of Mastery in category "Industrial design".
* Main picture by Design Magazine Core77
In the Philippines, even water is so commodified…it’s run by huge businesses.
One flush toilet system uses approximately 5-10 litres per one time. Of course, for urinals numbers are different. One Latvian family per one month uses appr. 180 litres of water, if I am not wrong. And if ten of them is used for flushing the toilet, it’s madness.
UGH. I wouldn’t use that thing to wash my hands.
Is there any difference if sink is 2 metres from urinal or it is on it? If there is someone who cleans sinks, then it is OK. Plus, these urinals could use sensor taps. It’s question of wate saving.
Yes, there is!!! Why should I water save? Okay, if it’s an easy way out, np. But washing my hands right above the toilet? no thanks.
Do you think your own negligible contribution as compared to everybody else’s can make any difference? Even if you do, the others don’t think so.
I’ve seen the concept before in Japanese bathrooms (but then, you can find just about anything in Japanese bathrooms).
The pictured concept could work really well for a public bathroom, let’s say a nightclub, or even railway station. The space saving (and not having to lay a separate set of pipes to the sink) could definitely convince the architects to use it.
I think it is very good that people start to think about how to conserve precious drinking water and I completely agree that it is a waste to use drinking water to flush our toilets.
In this particular case I am surprised, because for many years there have already been waterless urinals installed in many places (Google: waterless urinals) which do make this design redundant. Also I honestly doubt that most people would feel comfortable and hygienic to wash their hands in such an urinal - I personally would certainly not: who knows what the person before you did?!
Marc -
1) A waterless urinal is not a replacement or a better solution to this: people will *still* use water to wash their hands.
2) The person before you washed their hands after touching their genitals. Exactly the same as they did in every other public bathroom you’ve ever used.
Andrei,
Thank you for your reply, you made good points, but still there are too many problems for me to be convinced of this particular approach:
To No#1: Yes, but with this design people still use the water to wash their hands as well, so there is nothing more saved with waterless urinals IF the water from the sink is wasted, but then again, if you don’t waste it you could use the water for something else, this option is missing for this design because you need it to flush.
To No#2: Yes, that is true, but it is much more unlikely that i.e. a drunk person fails to aim and hits the sink I wash my hands in, because they are physically separated. But even if that wouldn’t be the case, people, as a majority will naturally feel not comfortable with this design. Think about this: a few years ago research has found that on a toilet lid there are less bacteria than on a kitchen table (it is factual you can Google it), still 99% of all people would feel uncomfortable eating food which did even only touch a toilet lid, wouldn’t you?
Additional No#3: Another point which has not been mentioned is that unless you only need one urinal in a toilet, this approach is more expensive and thus economically not sustainable: instead of requiring one or two sinks for maybe 10 urinals you need 10 urinals with an included sink, the additional costs for the fittings would outweigh the benefit.
In conclusion I have to say that as much as I appreciate the effort which is made to be more environmental friendly, this design is unsustainable.
Marc,
1) Are you saying that sink water could be used for something else? Like what? You wouldn’t pump it into a shower. In this design (if it works the way I understand it), the sink runoff gets collected in a tank that is then used to flush the urinal. Sink runoff is still grey water. This design still wouldn’t be water-neutral, since I don’t think the runoff from one hand-washing is enough to flush (but I haven’t researched it, it might work for a urinal). But it’s definitely a use for sink water that would otherwise just go to waste.
2) I think you are underestimating how gross the sinks in public bathrooms are anyway. I absolutely would not eat anything that touched the surface of a sink; I wouldn’t want to touch anything inside a public bathroom with my hands - which is why most of them have movement-activated taps and blowdryers. The aesthetic objection wouldn’t be important in a public bathroom.
And like I said, there are already similar systems in private homes in Japan, and I think we can safely apply the stereotype of the Japanese as people being very careful about hygiene. (And stand-up urinals are something you would not find in a private home.)
3) I doubt this system would be prohibitively expensive compared to regular urinals. It’s a matter of changing the mold used to bake the ceramic, and adding a simple tap - you have the water input and runoff pipes for each urinal anyway. An integrated sink would add to the cost of a single urinal, but not a huge amount. Maybe a few dozen Euros, a one-time cost. The space-saving benefit alone would be enough to justify it to a cafe in a European city center. The additional PR from showing that the owners are making an effort to be green - and the novelty value - would absolutely be worthwhile.
Andrei, you have absolutely right. This urinal collects water and then uses it to flush down the toilet.
Marc, you said “a drunk person fails to aim and hits the sink I wash my hands in.” Isnt there any possibility that this drunk person will fall on you using the regular urinal? It is called - coincidence of circumstances.
Another thing, that Andrei mentioned - it could use in train stations, airports and similar places. You dont have to touch the toilet lid if there are “which is why most of them have movement-activated taps and blowdryers.”
No one is said that this design will be used in every office or etc. It’s just design which could save toilet water.
Have everyone seen a documentary ‘Flow’?
No, Aija - and since there are dozens of posts on Th!nk3 per day, it would be best if you just gave us a summary of it.
rena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?”
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
http://www.flowthefilm.com/
It made a really great point to me about totally stupid ans sense lacking way of water supply in developing world, actions of World Bank . Would suggest everyone to take a look
“Even now women and girls are spending 2000 million hours every day collecting water. “ That’s a statistic that’s gonna stick with me.
Hey man,
I completely agree, we cannot waste water in our toilets!!! Specially in the semi-arid or arid countries such as Jordan and MIddle East. I have posted something about dry toilets, have a look:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/wanna_save_water_change_your_toilet
@ Hussam
Thanks for comment! I have read your articleand I have to say that it inspired me. I have few more ideas about water saving problem in toilets, which could help for Middle East/Africa or India, for example.
Cool!!! Then post them, and let’s try to solve this problem!