Whenever I’ve told anyone that I’m doing this challenge, without fail they have asked me “What are you going to do about flushing the toilet?” Good question. It’s the one part of this challenge which I’m really going to struggle with, if not fail entirely.
Email the PM to call for safe water and sanitation for all >>
Yesterday, even after repeating ‘Don’t flush, don’t flush’ to myself whilst sitting on the toilet, out of a habit drilled into me since childhood I realised too late that I had.
To try and avoid this happening again I have stuck a bright pink post-it note reading “Do you really need to flush??” on top of the cistern, which will hopefully stop my hand as it instinctively reaches to the flush buttons.
If I lived alone then my answer would be to not flush at all until the end of the day, save my waste water – from washing up, washing myself, cooking etc – in a bucket, and then use that to flush everything away at the end of the day.
However, I feel I have to be considerate to my housemates, work colleagues and other members of the public with whom I share toilets. In our culture it is not polite to leave our waste in the toilet bowl for another to find, is it? It seems impossible to avoid flushing entirely so the next best option I can come up with is to try to reduce the number of times I have to flush to an absolute minimum.
My housemate, with whom I share my bathroom, and I have come to a compromise which without being too explicit more or less follows the water-saving rhyme ‘If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down’. This, at least, will reduce the number of times I have to flush the toilet at home.
At work, my manager has ‘given’ me the office toilet for the duration of my challenge. She herself will use a different toilet in another part of the building, meaning that I can avoid flushing during the day and flush only once at the end of the day. As I flushed before I left today, I realised that my working week ends on Wednesday and as no-one else will be using that toilet I am now considering waiting until Wednesday evening until I flush it again. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this I would be happy to hear them – leave a comment below.
The question of flushing is really making me consider how often and where I use the toilet. Today I was interviewed by BBC Radio Sheffield about my Water Challenge and as I sat waiting, I resisted the urge to use the toilet as I didn’t want to add yet another flush to my water total for the day. And I didn’t really need to go, it was just nerves, and I managed perfectly fine until I got back to the office. I wonder how many other times I’ve used the toilet out of habit rather than need?
Total amount of water used today: 7 litres (although I’ve not done the washing-up yet) plus 2 toilet flushes.
2.3 billion people on this planet do not have adequate sanitation. Call on David Cameron to change this: www.cafod.org.uk/thirst
About the author: From Sunday 22nd – Saturday 28th January Rachel Wood will be trying to live on 10 litres of water each day, which she will walk 1km to collect, in order to experience a little of what life is like for those who live in water poverty.
Are you thirsting for change? Go to http://www.cafod.org.uk/thirst to see how you can take the water challenge or get involved with the campaign.
Latest posts
Rachel I think you are doing a fabulous job! I remember first coming across “If it’s yellow let it mellow…when I was a student and it is something I think we should all try and do at home if we can….keep up the good work. MEx
Well done Rachel – A really good example & experiment.
My family Canada who had septic tanks used the rhyme ‘If it’s yellow….’
I have a full litre bottle in the cistern of my old style loo which reduces the water used per flush; a brick is also sometimes suggested.