Recently, the issue of water waste has become a highly contested topic as climate change has created significant droughts in the Western portion of the United States. As I have travelled to various college campuses, this issue was highlighted in the implementation of toilet levers that have an integrated option for solid or liquid wastes. Essentially, flushing in a downward direction gets rid of liquid waste, while flushing in an upward direction expels solid waste; the different flushing mechanism is a way of minimizing water waste when using the restroom.  This is a socially acceptable way for an individual to follow the phrase, “if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down.” I believe this is an inventive method of overcoming the social stigma of not flushing—an almost intermediate step between wasting water completely flushing and not flushing at all. If this technology could be implemented on a wider scale, the amount of water able to be conserved at a national/global level would be enormous.

According to “Greenandsave.com”, these toilets save 26% more water than low-flow toilets, which save anywhere from 8,000 to 20,000 gallons of water per year, and can be retrofitted onto conventional toilets pretty easily - smarterflush.com has a variety of options.

(http://www.greenandsave.com/remodeling/ … ilets.html)
(http://www.smarterflush.com)