Spotlight: Toilet Lid Sink
April 27, 2010 at 1:02 pm Leave a comment
I saw this interesting little item on Greenopolis the other day – the toilet lid sink (technically called the Sink Positive). Basically, it’s easily installed in place of the cistern lid on your toilet, and when you flush, the clean water comes from the water supply, to the tap (under which you wash your hands) and then it goes down the plughole into the cistern, replacing the water that has just been used to flush the toilet. The next time you flush, this water is then used, and replaced… and so on. In this way, the water is used twice, rather than just using fresh water to flush. This would save heaps of water in hand-washing – and would restrict people to a certain amount of water for washing too.
Have a look at the video explanation (no captions, sorry), then read what I consider to be the downsides.
Downsides:
- I’m a pretty quick hand-washer and I think this would give me more water than I actually need most of the time.
- Where do you stand to wash your hands? Do you straddle the toilet? Try stand to the side of the toilet? It would be difficult to position yourself in any situation, but especially in separate toilets, like we have in lots of Australian households (as in, the toilet is in its own separate little room).
- I just know someone will knock the soap into the bowl. I know it.
- Cats love sinks. Imagine going to the toilet with a cat sleeping right behind you on top of the cistern. Interesting…
- There’s no way to modify the water pressure.
- How do little kids reach the sink? Stand on the toilet lid?
Do you think this grey water solution is beneficial enough to the environment to overlook the downsides?
Entry filed under: Spotlight. Tags: alternative usage, low impact, Reuse, water.
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed