A waterless Disneyland? (bathrooms)

[CupcakeTerror]

the chemical cartridges used in the low flush toilets:

a) are they harmful to the environment?
b) are they harmful to us?

Found this article... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5238296 doesn't answer about the actual chemical being dangerous, but the sewer gases coming up the pipes is what will hurt ya'. Gross.... anyone that has been near any raw sewage knows that smell will burn nose hairs an eyeballs right out of their sockets.

Ok maybe not that bad, but it's pretty disgusting. Unless you like that smell. Then you're just plain crazy.

[Fantasmico!]

soemtimes I think businesses jump too fast into something to be able to claim they are being "green" without doing enough research to determine long term feasibility. Going "green" is big business now but there have to be ways to upgrade the processing facilities we have now.

[akfandisney]

The Falcon Water Free Urinal:

The Falcon Waterfree urinal technology uses a Recyclable cartridge that Contains a special biodgradable liquids. The special liquid is lighter than other liguid and, therefore, floats on and seals the urine fromthe room atmosphere. The Cartridge has a design duty lift of 7,000 uses, at which time the Manufacture recommends replacement.

Cost of Cartridge is about $40.00 - $80.00 each.

Also the cartridige have design with small (P trap) to block the sewer gas and keep blue liguid aflot.

If business talk to there Water District Authority , You may get urinal free of cost and cost to water district (about $400.00 to $500.00).
The cost to install will depends on the height of the pipes.

This system will save on water and sewer waste cost.

There is a UCLA Study Report on the waterfree urinal (12/01/03).
In September 2000, Falcon Waterfree Technologies, LLC (fwt) arranged with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to install a Falcon Waterfree urinal in the Men's Restroom in Boelter Hall(classroom building) on campus for the Purose of: (a) measuring usage, (b) comparing bacterial growth rates and odors with trasitional flush urinals and (c) performing lifecycle cost analysis modeling of the water urinal installation within typical education institutions.
The assignment was performed by the UCLA Department of Civil and Environment Engineering.

click here for Falcon web site

[RocketTom]

Where I work, we read all the ads, saw all the studies. We went to other businesses with waterless urinals (at the mfg suggestion), and we bought'em. Fortunately, we left the water piping in as a backup.

We found that on restrooms that have a "normal" usage rate, they're fine and work as advertised. Where we had problems was in areas that experienced high traffic/usage. (Like our cafeteria - we can get a LOT of usages.) It's gross. I'll leave it there.

For some areas it'll work just fine. For areas that experience a lot of usage, I'd HIGHLY recommend an alternative.

[custodialcleaner]

behind critter country is a maintenance shop, right next to it is kind of a older building that has bathrooms in it. these have the mentioned urinals, and they aren't much to write home about. always smell and aren't exactly all that appeasing really, was confusing at first that the urinals don't flush.

this was probably disneys first and last experiment with them, the amount of guests that go into bathrooms daily would be totally scary with waterless toilets and urinals.... not to mention imho would make it smell and look more like a national park (open pit toilets anyone?)

[Missviolet]

We have a low flow toilet and it never needs to be double flushed... well, maybe after Chinese food.. but other than that.

We don't have a cartridge in our tank.

[SingingAngel7242]

ew ew ew

[Bruce Bergman]

Do Not Want.

Besides the odor problems, and the replacing the cartridge every 7,000 uses (one to three months) and disposal costs of the old cartridge, it will probably cost as much to operate as the water you save did...

The waterless units are also very hard on the drain pipes, as the 'effluent' being put into the urinals is rather corrosive. Using water to flush dilutes that effluent during disposal, but with no water added it is very hard on the (required in commercial buildings) cast iron drain plumbing. It just sits there on the horizontal runs and concentrates through evaporation up the vent stack...

It was a nice idea, but doesn't really work in practice. I suppose if you are in a critical water shortage where it's $10 a gallon, but we are not. Just put in low flow fixtures and be done with it.

The water saving efforts would be better put toward expanding the use of reclaimed water from the city sewer treatment plants (rather than regular city water) for irrigation and recreational uses - start building purple water mains everywhere in urban and suburban areas, and put it into residential neighborhoods.

And expanding aqueduct and pipeline construction - Look at all that Upper Mississippi Basin flood water in the midwest that could have been used to recharge underground aquifers and fill lakes and reservoirs all over the country.

If we could divert just a small fraction of that water to where it could be put to good use, that would ease droughts for years to come. Old pit mines can make good spreading basins.

--<< Bruce >>--

[Peglegin98]

What they really need to do is use the Dyson air blades, that dry the hands in about 10 seconds without having to any paper towels.

[MegaDisney]

My folks have "low flow" toilets and we have them at my job too. I like them better than the lord knows how old toilet in my bathroom that uses a bazillion gallons of water every time I flush is. Considering my A/C was 30 years old before they replaced it with an energy efficient one this spring, wouldn't surprise me if the toilet is that old too.

You can easily update an old toilet to use less water, and it is free!

Just fill a water bottle that you were going to throw away with tap water, screw the cap back on and place in the toilet tank. This will reduce each flush by the amount of the size of the bottle. You may have to experiment with bottle sizes and the amount of water you need for a clean flush, but it is a quick easy way to save water, the enviroment and money, and its free!

[Wreckless Abrandon]

I'm surprised more of the bathrooms in the Disneyland Resort haven't changed to touch free dryers/ paper towel dispensers, toilets, and faucets. I don't remember how many times I've seen someone leave the faucet on, or waste a ton of paper towels.

We live in such a wasteful society it's not even funny. And so many people resort to being environmental always means it's a political thing. Why kill our planet and ourselves? I think it's sad when people don't even think about how much crap we dump into our own ocean, yet they want to play in it every summer. "Someone else will clean it."

I always say to people that think we need to colonize on the moon, without changing their ways about the environment to think about how we're the only animal that purposely destroys nature. If we were forced to bury our own trash in our backyard, I'm sure everyone would think twice about buying excessive amounts of anything. It's always the "Not in my backyard" mentality.

So if we move to the moon, what's gonna stop us from trashing that place too?

I just wish people wouldn't flush a million times when they're using the bathroom in Disneyland.

[jett]

It seems that low-flow toilets often need to be flushed more than once...

Many low flow toilets have two buttons with different sizes; the small is a half flush and the large is a full flush. That way you are more likely to use an appropriate amount of water for the situation. The two-button system is very intuitive and I understood it immediately the first time I saw it.

[Wreckless Abrandon]

You can easily update an old toilet to use less water, and it is free!

Just fill a water bottle that you were going to throw away with tap water, screw the cap back on and place in the toilet tank. This will reduce each flush by the amount of the size of the bottle. You may have to experiment with bottle sizes and the amount of water you need for a clean flush, but it is a quick easy way to save water, the enviroment and money, and its free!

Nice! I've always loved this idea, and it works!

[akfandisney]

I'm surprised more of the bathrooms in the Disneyland Resort haven't changed to touch free dryers/ paper towel dispensers, toilets, and faucets. I
.

Let think on the time that you dry your hand.
How long it take you dry your under a touch free dryers
the electric power take to dry that hand and cost to dry that hand.

big place (Fair or like Disneyland) you will need a hand dryer for each Restroom stall.
The wall space to place the dryer and electric power need run all dryers.
What is the cost in make bigger restroom.
A hand dryer work well in a small place.

Now with a paper towel that person is on the move and out the door faster.
That person get on a ride or buy something faster.

You have to look at Time, costs and income.

[Wreckless Abrandon]

Let think on the time that you dry your hand.
How long it take you dry your under a touch free dryers
the electric power take to dry that hand and cost to dry that hand.

big place (Fair or like Disneyland) you will need a hand dryer for each Restroom stall.
The wall space to place the dryer and electric power need run all dryers.
What is the cost in make bigger restroom.
A hand dryer work well in a small place.

Now with a paper towel that person is on the move and out the door faster.
That person get on a ride or buy something faster.

You have to look at Time, costs and income.

Good point about the electric driers. Too many people would be just sitting there not spending money/ going on rides.

Now while that's true about the drier, but what about touch free paper towel dispensers? They can run on battery power, and there are some that can manually dispense if the battery fails. So many times I see people pulling enough paper towels to wrap a mummy, it's so wasteful.

And I can't count on two hands how many times I've seen people NOT flush the toilets. That's just wrong.