Green Options

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Editor’s note: OK, we’re usually not so potty-mouthed, but, as you’ll see, it’s perfectly (and literally) appropriate this time around. We’re pleased to have Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh join us as guest contributors, and share with you their series on the surprising journeys of everyday things.  They will be posting previews on Green Options before launching the posts on Huffington Post.  Here’s a sneak peek at bathroom fun.

What you may not realize, cherie, is that whatever you flush down comes back around. Our waste fertilizes our fields and is pumped back into the waterways that are our major sources of drinking water. Let’s take the journey from toilet to tap, shall we? Oui oui. (We’re affecting French here for a touch of sophistication in a post centering on fecal matter.)

Americans use about 70 gallons of water indoors, every day.  About three-quarters of that is used in the toilette—shower, bath, sink, crapper—and over one-quarter is used whisking away our waste.  You can cut this water usage by making sure your toilet isn’t leaking, using a composting or low-flow toilet or even displacing the water in the tank with a brick or container filled with sand .  Your toilet is not a trashcan, so save cigarette butts, tissues and used condoms for the basket, not the bowl.

The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco will ask voters to change the name of a sewage treatment plant on the coast to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.  The New York Times explains:

Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial

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Forget building more hydroelectric dams and tidal energy generators … Leviathan Energy has developed a turbine that can generate electricity from the water flowing through municipal water pipes and sewers. The company was among those displaying their innovations during the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco.

Image courtesty of Wikimedia Commons user JSDX