Photo courtesy of Jarhelm via Wikimedia Commons

The fact is, green toilets have come a long way and are pretty effective at what they do. Water is a precious, scarce resource that can be conserved with the right toilet technology. Within the green toilet category, you have the high-efficiency, pressure-assist, and the dual-flush toilet, or a combination of all three. Let me explain further.

In the March 2007 edition of domino, the esteemed, green entreprenuer Graham Hill said, "save thousands of gallons by following 'if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.'" Sorry, but that won't fly with my wife or dog. That's where the dual-flush toilet comes in handy. The dual flush toilet has full volume flush (1.6 gallons) and water-saving flush (0.8-1.1 gallons), which you use accordingly, depending on whether you have a #1 or #2. A dual-flush toilet using 0.8 for the water-saving flush will save a typical household roughly 7,000 gallons of water per year.

The high-efficiency toilets are about 20% more efficient than the 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf) standard, flushing in at about 1.28 gallons. Depending on your state, there may be rebates available for these types of toilets, and a typical household will save about 4,000 gallons of water per year. Many of these toilets use the pressure-assist technology, which adds a little umph to the flush. So you use less water, but that's compensated by pressure-assist technology.

In the future, you may hear someone say they installed a low-flow toilet, but dig a little deeper. Was it a dual-flush? A high-efficiency toilet with pressure-assist technology? A dual-flush with pressure-assist technology? A high-efficiency, dual-flush tiolet with pressure-assist technology? Here are a few places to go to look for toilets: Toto Aquia Dual-flush, Caroma Dual-flush, Zurn EcoVantage, Sterling Rockton Dual-flush, and American Standard FlowWise.

Photo Credit: Renovation Experts.