The First Facility Management Blog

The small town of Nipomo, CA in the southern end of San Luis Obispo County on California’s central coast has just announced that before any business or residential property may be sold in the city, it must be retrofitted with water saving plumbing fixtures.

This is a trend being seen throughout the country. Even water rich areas of the country are requiring that low and no water toilets, urinals, and faucets be installed before a property is sold. Others are offering tax rebates to encourage their installation.

Saving water is the goal of these programs. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an older, conventional toilet can waste up to 4,000 gallons of water per year. And a urinal may use more than 40,000 gallons of water annually.

But what should can be done with the old toilets and urinals that are being replaced?

Fortunately, toilet and urinal recycling programs have sprung up around the country, and the old fixtures are being used in a myriad of applications.

“What typically happens is the toilet or urinal’s porcelain is crushed,” says Klaus Reichardt, founder and managing partner of Waterless Co., LLC, manufacturers of no water urinal systems. “The pebbles can be added to asphalt for paving roads or used in drainage projects.”

This, according to Reichardt, not only eliminates the need to discard toilets into landfills, but reduces the need to mine for gravel, a cost savings that benefits the taxpayer and the environment. 

Other uses of crushed porcelain from recycled urinals and toilets include:

• Building foundations: Facilities have earned LEED certification points by using recycled toilets and urinals in this way.
• Nature trails: You will be walking on old toilets and urinals when exploring San Antonio’s Calaveras Park Nature Trail. More than a thousand recycled toilets and urinals were used to pave the park’s trails.
• Mulch: Botanical gardens have found that crushed toilets and urinals are a welcome addition to mulch.

Waterless Co. encourages building owners and facility managers to recycle their old toilets and urinals and to contact their local recycling center for more information.

Sloan Valve Company has become the first plumbing company in the world to receive the Cradle to Cradle Design certification for its products. MBDC, the product process and design firm that evaluates companies and their products based on their “eco-effectiveness,” certified two Sloan plumbing products for silver level status: the Uppercut dual flush flushometer and the Royal model 111 manual flushometer.

“This certification is the result of 10 months of exhaustive review of our manufacturing processes and materials,” says Jim Allen, director of Sloan’s Water Efficiency Division. “MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle certification process is the most thorough and rigorous third party product evaluation. This certification goes beyond our products’ water saving attributes; it is a true assessment of the overall, combined impact of Sloan’s manufacturing, material selection, recycled/recovered material use, and all processes related to product creation.”

The Uppercut dual flush flushometer becomes the first and only dual flush product in the world to be Cradle to Cradle silver certified. This distinction assures specifiers and owners that the Uppercut will offer high water efficiency, and it was manufactured and certified to a high environmental standard. All Uppercuts are made in the United States by union labor.

MBDC, a Charlottesville, VA, product process and design firm, was founded in 1995 to promote and shape the implementation of eco-effective design principles. Instead of perpetuating cradle to grave products, dumped in landfills after fulfilling their initial intended purpose, MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle design concept recognizes products whose materials are continuously circulated in closed loops. Designing for cradle to cradle product lifecycles, for instance, plans for sustainability and product re-use, which reduces reliance on virgin material inputs and lessens overall material costs.

Sloan, which offsets 100% of the energy used in its Franklin Park, IL, headquarters with renewable energy, is the recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Leadership Award for its Green Power Purchase. Sloan’s corporate mission toward sustainability also includes other initiatives, such as installing more energy efficient lighting, which will significantly reduce its carbon footprint.

Sustainability is also reflected in Sloan’s material choices: About 89% of Sloan’s flushometers are made from brass casting alloy, 99% of which is from recycled sources, and the flushometers are completely recyclable or reusable in remodel projects.

Sloan Valve Company is a leading manufacturer of water efficient plumbing systems and has been in operation since 1906. Headquartered in Franklin Park, IL, the company manufactures plumbing products and accessories for commercial, industrial, and institutional markets worldwide.