I read an alarming piece of news on Nobember 19…World Toilet Day. On "News.Com" an article appeared that predicts the end of toilets as we know them—-toilets that will not flush or use water. The opening paragraph of this article says this: "As the world celebrates World Toilet Day, sanitation experts have called for the end of the flushing dunny {I take that to be a toilet} to save water and provide fertilizer for crops". It is the "providing fertilizer for crops" that gets to me the most. I know, I know …I shouldn’t be squeamish about the obvious use of human……(you know) for fertilizer because something in the recesses of my brain says I have read about the use of human—–you know—in countries like China where crops are needed badly for the exploding population….they are the ones who have tiered the steep hillsides and made them fertile for crop-growing…so I should just relax and get rid of my extremely American/Western civilization hang-ups about this subject. But why this is the area of the World where the flu plagues of the world first develop?….what are we to make of spreading human fertilizer all over the place? We could be creating the Ultimate Killer Virus that will render any kind of toilets unneeded!
I would miss my flushing "dunny" a lot. And what would happen if—-say cloth diapers came back into use and a law was passed, because we ran out of landfill space on the planet for disposable diapers, that you could no longer buy disposable diapers …..boom! there goes another industry down the rathole!!! (or toilet hole) What would future mothers of the world do without a flushing toilet? I would have been flummoxed if I had not had a flushing toilet when my first two sons were babies…..I NEEDED that toilet filled with water to do the initial cleanup after a very messy diaper came off the baby…messy from—you know. Plumbers would have gone belly-up too if they had not had the frequent business of undoing an accidentally flushed cloth diaper—often done by the offending toddler himself. What would the Doctors do without the frequent accidents….the Doctor who sewed up my son’s chin after he and his older cousin (who should have known better) played with a dirty diaper soaking in the toilet and swished it all over the bathroom walls and ceilings? Then my 1 year old slipped in the "water" on the floor, and cut his chin wide open with a gaping cut that needed a Doctor’s stitching….plus paying for the Emergency Room visit. Profits could be lost all over the place without the Flushing Dunny.
Another horror story emanates before my mind and other senses. Would these "new toilets" without water not introduce the concept of the old Outhouse again…only this time it would be inside our homes? I, for one, am not prepared to go back to using the pages of the Sears or Wards catalogs again. And peach papers are only available in the summertime and I have not noticed any peach papers for years in the crates of peaches I have seen recently. There is not enough room deodorizer available on world markets to deodorize the emanations that I remember in old Outhouses. Oh sure, you say, the new waterless toilets would be engineered so there wouldn’t be any emanations coming from the New Toilet Room in people’s houses. Tell me another one!
I have another distinctive sensory memory of chemicalized Loos that goes back to my first visit to the Renaissance Fair in the rural area close to the Twin Cities. My first visit took place on the most humid, steamy, hotter- than- Hades, day I can ever remember. In addition to enjoying the Medieval setting, the shows like Puke and Snot put on, the King’s Nuts and the Queen’s Apples and Spinach Pie and Turkey legs (do you get the drift that I wasted no time looking at booths where there was no food?)……….any way, in addition to all that….there came a time, shortly after watching the Jousters nearly kill each other before our very eyes…that I realized I should not have drunk one drop of any liquid because I had to visit the lineup of chemical toilets on the Renaissance Grounds. I do not know how long these Chemical Toilets had been stewing in the heat and humidity…it smelt like about 10 days to me…..I had to walk in to one of them and "use the facility". I could not keep my eyes open—-they were watering so badly from the overpowering ammonia fumes plus other unmentionable odors all mixed together with toilet chemicals designed, supposedly, to mask all these gases and fumes. When I finally stumbled out (probably with my pants around my ankles) I could not see, taste, smell, or feel anything. I was traumatized and did not eat another Kings Nut, Queen’s apple, or any more spinach pie or turkey legs. I had to go lie on the humid moist grass that by now looked like cooked spinach from so many people trampling on the grounds of that place and try to recuperate from visiting the Chemical Toilet. There was no fresh air at that place….all the air, laden with the chemical toilet smell mixed with roasting turkey legs, hot caramel, roasted nuts (belonging to the King) and the undesirable condition of most of the people’s bodies which had pretty much gone rotten in the heat and humidity. I have never been in another place in my whole life that was so closed in by trees and humid air…there was no breeze and no dry air and no unscented breath to be breathed. All my memories of that hot humid steamy day at the Renaissance Fair come back to haunt my fevered mind as I contemplate life without flushing toilets.
Maybe the Obama administration ( he will be our Dictator by the time this happens, and he will be in the WhiteHouse forever) will slap on a Toilet Tax like has already been suggested in Australia and we will be paying for every flush we make. An Adelaide a toilet expert has said that a Toilet Tax would keep people from flushing their toilets as often, thereby saving a lot of water. Just the thought of seldom flushed toilets sends me into another Renaissance Fair post traumatic syndrome tizzy. The Australian professor of Water Management also says that people would take shorter showers (maybe they would only take one a month) and also encourage them to recycle washing machine water (not for drinking, I hope) and also hook up rainwater tanks to internal plumbing. I think we used to call this a Cistern under the house and I remember cistern water too….we washed our hair in it years ago. The water was yellowish-brown but it was "soft" and the shampoo came out rather nicely after you got over looking at the color of the water.
The closing paragraph of this article says this: "If you aren’t flushed with enthusiasm by a third-world toilet, Time magazine recently revealed the world’s most expensive toilet. The sophisticated lavatory from a Japanese {would’nt you know it would be Japanese?} manufacturer Toto, features a self- raising or closing toilet seat {it better be thermally sealed like a Space Capsule}….a seat warmer and ambient music to make relieving yourself as pleasant as possible." Ye-gawds! Music….the word "elevator music" will disappear from our vocabularies to be replaced by "Toilet Music" !! The closing paragraph goes on to inform us "Several of these features are already the mainstays of upper-class Japanese restaurants, while some of the top- range models can even check blood pressure, urine protein, weight and body fat."
Everything I do NOT want to know about! Count me out when it comes to buying and using one of these NEW third world toilets!!! I am too old and too old fashioned to change my ways now. I will just stop taking showers and baths…. til I get thrown out of my own home.
I’m with you. No thanks to a third world toilet for me. I was having sympathy sick to my stomachness as you were describing your chemical toilet experience.
Ah yes, Obama the forever dictator. I guess it’s back to the hills (made of sod?) for you.
Perhaps only a few people are facinated with topic, but I am one of them. For 30 years, I’ve wondered why we use our precious resource of water for the purpose of transporting sewage from our stools/sinks to wherever its destination. (Not to mention a maze of pipes required in cities.) Why not use something less valuable, or, why move it at all. Now, a solution is in site that my help all of human kind. Oh, and here is some advise from experience: Don’t raise this topic in social occasions–people move away from you.
About 49 million acres of crop land are fertilized with raw human waste.
OH MY, I knew there was a reason I never went to the Renaissance Fair. Bgal you cracked me up with this one! Potty talk…one of those “unmentionable” subjects!!
I am trying to visualize that Japanese toilet, with Christmas music.
I read a piece recently about one of our Soldiers in Korea in the early 1950′s. He wanted some lettuce to put on a hamburger. He said it tasted so horrible he could not eat it. He said the stench in the summer was so bad it would physically nauseate them..much like your Renaissance experience.
There is a product out there on the market, known as Milorganite..it is dehydrated sewage sludge, left overs from sewage treatment plants. It repells deer to some extent, I always advised my customers to use plastic gloves when applying it..although anything alive should have been killed in the processing. Here is the link, and there is a pretty cool video there too:) http://www.milorganite.com/home/
To “Eyeroller” whichever of your aliases you are currently using—get over it! It’s my opinion.. and one of his chief “advisors”(Elaine J – - -?) said the other day that “Obama is getting ready to rule.” RULE..that is what Dictators and Kings do right???
Jon L….I take your comments as sensible ones that could do a lot toward conserving our resources, especially water which does not get renewed in some aquifers—specifically that huge one in the south/southwest that has been systematically drained for years without much replenishment. I have some ideas also on saving our resource like water—–notice that I am going to use the word “Force”: FORCE the desert southwest (AZ and NM in particular to halt the planting of “northern lawns” and other northern plants that require so much water…stick to the natural desert landscape that is what is supposed to be there!!! FORCE: the large and small cities to stop lawn watering at any time! Lawns go dormant and come back when it rains….STOP ALL LAWN WATERING EVERYWHERE. FORCE more reservoirs to be constructed in mountain areas so winter snowmelt is caught in them for later usage. FORCE the desert southwest to switch from northern agriculatural practices like raising alfalfa with deep well irrigation (from that crucial aquifer I mentioned). FORCE meters to be installed on all showers for less than 5 minutes of water for a shower. FORCE all washing machines to be made with a water saver so several loads can be washed in the same water (the old principle of the wringer washer I grew up with)
Of course this will require LAWS to be passed by government entities and that will probably guarantee that it will never happen….we really NEED a dictator for this problem huh??????