Don’t Flush After Every Wee (and Other Water Saving Ideas)

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by

James Walters
in
Don’t Flush After Every Wee (and Other Water Saving Ideas) to help climate change

Here we look at; Saving Water Is Important for Climate Change; Save Water by NOT Flushing Every Time; and Other Ways to Save Money and Save Water. This is one of over 40 ideas in our Sustainability Roadmap with Solutions to Climate Change, and part of our series on Living Sustainably.

If you already know why it’s essential to save water to help climate change, here are the options to reduce the amount of water that you flush down the toilet:

  1. If it’s yellow, let it mellow = Don’t flush after going for a wee
  2. Use rainwater to flush the toilet (capture it in a water butt then use a bucket)

If you want some more facts before making any decisions, let’s get into the details:

Before we get into this piece, I wanted to give you some context because saying don’t flush after every wee might sound like a pointless piece of advice that can’t possibly save a lot of water and help the climate crisis.

Let’s consider how much water we use, just to flush the toilet.

Based on what I think is a conservative estimate, this is what I reckon we would have been flushing every day:

  1. 3 flushes in the morning
  2. 4 flushes through the day
  3. 3 flushes in the evening
  4. That’s 10 flushes a day
  5. 5 litres of water for every flush
  6. That’s 50 liters of sterilised drinking water a day
  7. = 18,250 litres of water that we could be drinking, flushed down the toilet!

The numbers could easily be higher because I work from home, and my son is here Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and every other weekend.

The true figure of how much water we use is around 142 litres per person per day.

So 142 litres per person per day is 51,830 per person, per year!

Sure, that includes all water usage, not just flushing the toilet, but you get the point. What might seem like a small amount of water used each day, is actually a lot.

Water that travels through pipes from your home or work, goes through the treatment process at the water plant, and is pumped back to your home and work, often just to be flushed down the toilet.

Cleaned and sterilised drinking water for flushing toilets has always seemed crazy.

As well as reducing the amount of water we use to flush toilets, wouldn’t it be great if we could separate cleaned drinking water from water used to flush the toilet. We can (it’s actually super simple, I’ll tell you how at the end).

So, my point is made about the importance of saving water where possible.

Saving Water Is Important for Climate Change

Even though we live in a country that’s surrounded by water, the vast majority of that water is not accessible.

Out of all the water on the planet, less than 1% is accessible fresh water for us to use.

Water is a precious resource.

Unless we do something about climate change, we may well see water shortages by 2040.

The availability of water is one important factor.

The other is the cost of cleaning, sterilising, and delivering drinking water to our houses and businesses.

It really is a miracle. Well, not a miracle, but it is amazing that we can turn on the tap and the water that comes out is virtually sterilised, free from disease.

I don’t drink directly from the tap. I prefer to filter the water using bamboo charcoal to remove the chlorine and other impurities. You can get those bamboo charcoal water filters from Charcoal People from approx. £4.70.

Whilst I filter my tap water, at least it does arrive safe to drink as soon as it comes out of the tap. However, getting water to us in that state takes effort.

Emissions from the water industry account for nearly 1% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Water treatment is;

  1. Energy intensive
  2. Chemical intensive

Getting water into households and businesses also requires transportation in the form of a lot of pumping.

We can’t keep using water as we’ve always done.

It’s not as simple as turning on the tap, using whatever we want, and always expecting water to be available when we want it.

One of the first things that I did on my journey to help climate change by growing, eating, and living sustainably, was to save water by flushing the toilet less.

It’s also one of the easiest things to do and a great way to get into new habits of consuming less and wasting less.

Save Water by NOT Flushing Every Time

In an app (I forget the name) I saw a suggestion to save water called, it was titled ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow’ meaning, if you go for a wee, you don’t need to flush the toilet every time.

It was so obvious. Such a simple way to save a LOT of water.

Every time you flush the toilet you use roughly:

  1. 5 litres per flush for a modern cistern
  2. Up to 9 litres per flush for an older toilet

That ‘s a crazy amount of sterilised drinking water being flushed down the toilet, every time you flush!

So, at home we now don’t flush if we go for a wee, just flushing if it’s a number 2 😉

Arthur and I also don’t usually use the toilet for a wee. We save our wee for the compost heap because it helps to add nitrogen!

Flush with Rainwater to Save Money and Save Water

[update from September 2021] we now actually flush almost 0 sterilised drinking water down the toilet.

On our first camping trip to a bothy in Wales, the bothy had a toilet that wasn’t connected to mains water. You had to flush the toilet by filling a bucket with rainwater collected from the roof.

It was an absolutely brilliant idea that I hadn’t thought about before. I felt like an idiot because it was so obvious, especially as we have two water butts at home that gather a LOT of rainwater. So, now we do that at home.

I have a 5 litre bucket with a lid. It’s kept topped up with rainwater from the water butt, with the lid tightly sealed. Whenever we want to flush the toilet we just take off the lid and tip the water down the toilet then go and fill the bucket up again from the water butt.

Based on all of the water saving things that we do related to going to the toilet, I’d say we can go from flushing 18,000+ litres of water to flushing less than 2,000 litres of water. That’s 16,000+ litres of water not getting wasted, going down the toilet! Just from one household.

In the UK there are an estimated 27.8 million households.

Sure, not every household can collect water in waterbutts, but most households can find ways to save water.

Other Ways to Save Money and Save Water

Using less water to flush the toilet is just one way of saving water. When I started saving water it really made me conscious of all the other ways I consume and waste.

Research shows that 46% of people believe their household uses less than 20 litres of water a day.

There’s definitely a disconnect somewhere because a 2-minute shower alone can use roughly 20 litres of water. If more people knew the amount of water they use then saving money and saving water may become more of a priority.

We’ve already looked at how it’s easy to use 18,000+ litres of water, just flushing the toilet.

What about other ways that cleaned and sterilised water is used?

About 20% of a typical heating bill (with a gas boiler) comes from heating the water that’s used for showers, baths, and the hot water tap!

Running tap water, such as while you’re brushing your teeth, pours approximately 6 litres of clean sterilised drinking water down the drain, every minute!

There are tons of other ways to save money and save water such as this list from Water UK and Waterwise Water’s Worth Saving:

  1. Take shorter showers (this can save a LOT of water)
  2. Fill the dishwasher completely full, and use the eco setting
  3. Let the lawn go brown during dry weather, it’ll go green when it rains
  4. Use a watering can and rainwater (instead of a hose or sprinkler)
  5. Let the car get dirty

It’s also worth considering how to use less water during peak hours (6pm and 10pm).

It’s important to remember that we can’t fix the climate crisis by doing one thing. Saving water alone isn’t enough. It’s about changing our lifestyles to grow, eat, and live sustainably. Saving water is as important as Avoiding Plastic Pollution with Reusable Coffee Cups as well as Switching to an Ethical Bank and Saving in an Ethical and Sustainable Pension so that our money isn’t being used to fund fossil fuels.

Here Is What You Can Do

Want to Continue Your Journey?

Where Next?

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  4. Try the Sustainability Roadmap
  5. Use the Company Directory
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Sources Used to Create This

  1. Save Water – Waterwise
  2. Vast majority of Brits have no idea how much water they use each day
  3. Families and households in the UK: 2020
  4. Charcoal People: Water Filters

Production Notes

This was produced by me, James Walters, as a personal project to help stop climate change by inspiring others to grow, eat, and live sustainably.

Any advice given is the opinion of those involved and does not constitute medical, financial, or legal advice.

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