Only 2.8 percent of urinals sold in United States in 2012 were water free. That number is bound to grow. Replacing urinals that flush with waterless urinals will save millions of gallons of water. This is a case of low-hanging fruit.
Waterless urinals are good for the environment, and our wallets.
M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, reduced its water usage by 43 percent after installing 400 waterless urinals. The Staples Center in Los Angeles — which hosts the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers — is saving 7 million gallons a year. Bank of America Tower in New York saves 3.4 million gallons a year thanks to water-free urinals. The average water-free urinal in an office building might save about 25,000 gallons a year. There’s no cost from hooking them up to a water system. And water-free urinals have no moving parts that can break.
Depending on the model and specific sale, water-free urinal fixtures are often cheaper than traditional flush urinals.
Water will be the new oil, and will be used as a weapon.
The United Nations projects the current world population of 7.2 billion to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, which will further strain water supplies. Shortage of fresh water is a hazard to U.S. national security. As 2050 nears, the likelihood increases that water will be “potentially used as a weapon, where one state denies access to another,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official. According to a Nature study, 1.7 billion people already rely on aquifers that are rapidly being depleted.
Waterless urinals offer an economical way to help the problem.