The First Facility Management Blog

From New York to Amsterdam to Moscow and Singapore, flies are invading unlikely places: public urinals. Don’t worry, bug lovers, these are not real flies. Instead, decals and paintings are being incorporated into the porcelain bowls in an effort to reduce the mess associated with public restrooms for men.

UrinalFly.com is in the business of “making the world cleaner one bathroom at a time.” This simple product works with a man’s basic instincts to produce a cleaner bathroom and perhaps induce some laughs along the way. According to the company’s Web site, if you “give them something to aim for, you will be amazed by the results.”

In his segment, “There’s A Fly In My Urinal,” Robert Krulwich of NPR explains:

The presence of a fly in a urinal literally changes human behavior—or at least the behavior of human males.

‘Apparently,’ May Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois says, in males, ‘there is a deep-seated instinct to aim at targets,’ and having a fly to aim at reduces what she politely calls ‘human spillage.’

When flies were introduced at Schiphol Airport, spillage rates dropped 80%, says manager Aad Keiboom. A change like that, of course, translates into major savings in maintenance costs.

Keiboom in Amsterdam says the original fly idea was proposed almost 20 years ago by Dutch maintenance man Jos Van Bedoff, who had served in the Dutch army in the 1960s. As a soldier he noticed that someone had put small, discrete red dots in the barracks urinals, which dramatically cut back on ‘misdirected flow.’

Two decades later, he proposed to the airport board of directors that the dots be turned into etched flies. According to Keiboom, Van Bedoff decided that guys want to directly aim at an animal they can immobilize. The ability to use one’s natural gifts and achieve victory over the foe while standing is the key, he explained. Guys, he felt, can always beat flies. That’s why flies are so satisfying.

So the next time you gentlemen see a fly in the urinal, don’t forget to take aim…

Source: www.ablogabouthistory.com

Earlier this week, scientists in Scotland came to the realization that a discovery from 1990 was actually quite significant: a 500 year old undisturbed drain was a goldmine for archaeologists from Glasgow University.

The find occurred on the grounds of Paisley Abbey, which was founded as a Cluniac priory in 1163 and became an abbey in 1245. The monastery was disbanded during the Scottish Reformation, in 1560, when the monastic buildings were handed over to the Hamilton family.

From Thandian News:

An initial excavation revealed an arched corridor almost six feet high (pictured right) and uncovered pottery fragments and gaming pieces, a complete chamber pot, and other artifacts.

Archaeology professor Steven Driscoll, part of the Glasgow team, said the site was extremely well preserved. “What’s unusual is that it hasn’t been messed with. This is a loo that hasn’t been flushed for 500 years. We have a kind of sealed environment, containing artifacts like the earliest known piece of Scottish music, which we found scratched into pieces of slate,” he said.

“The monks here were part of an internationally connected order. They were using Paisley as a kind of communications centre - as we can see from these tags we’ve found, which were the binding of boxes being shipped to the continent,” he added.

“We’ll be finding out about the sorts of things that were growing in the gardens, and the things they were eating. So, it’s possible to reconstruct the lifestyle of the monks,” he further added.

Sometimes what you see is NOT what you get. Check out the following photos for an excellent example of the truth behind this statement.

This woman is getting ready to enter a public toilet in London.

Now that you’ve seen the outside view, take a look at the inside view…

It’s made entirely of one-way glass! No one can see you from the outside, but when you are inside it’s like sitting in a clear glass box! Now would you…COULD YOU….?

From Snopes.com:

The concept of how we react to “seeing but not being seen” was put to the test by Monica Bonvicini in December 2003, when her work (entitled “Don’t Miss A Sec”) was installed at a construction site across the road from London’s Tate Britain museum. Bonvicini’s creation is a public toilet enclosed within reflective glass walls that allow the user to see out but prevent those outside from seeing in. It’s an exhibit that challenges whether we adapt to the idea of being able to view others passing in close proximity to us while we engage in an activity which we don’t want them to view.

Here’s another one. Imagine you are at a party on the 10th floor, and then you have to visit the bathroom. You open the door…
(Scroll sloooooooowly)

Kinda takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Would you be able to use this bathroom? Or would you open the door and then shut it in disbelief?

Here’s the last one. It’s the ceiling mural in a smokers’ lounge.

I think the image speaks for itself.

Thanks to Megan Knight for submitting this information.

Plumbing can be one of the most difficult and unglamorous aspects of facility management. So when someone introduces a product that can successfully flush just about anything—and in jaw dropping quantities—well, that’s worthy of special attention.

St. Thomas Creations of San Diego, CA has introduced the high performance Quattro Flushing Technology system—an advanced flushing system that addresses the environmental efficiency and poor performance issues long associated with the use of 1.6-gallon water closets.

Quattro uses half the amount of water as traditional 3.5-gallon models and features an extra large three-inch flush valve, for maximum water flow to the bowl, eliminating the need for double flushing. An extra large direct-fed water jet delivers maximum force, providing exceptional waste removal from the bowl. And a 2 1/8” glazed trapway is computer-designed to minimize clogging.

View the demo below to get a sense of Quattro’s flushing power:

With Quattro Flushing Technology, 1.6-gallon water closets are more efficient than ever before. While the Quattro targets the residential audience, it may be worth checking to see if the same technology may be incorporated into a commercial product. After all, you never know when someone may try to flush 3 1/2 pounds of dog food down your commode.

The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art is taking toilet homage to a new level. The organization has launched a Web site which displays a large selection of its collection of images of toilets taken at various art museums from around the world. Ranging from exclusive images of the Metropolitan, to the behind-closed-doors shots of the Hermitage to the decaying yet still flushing pictures of the Mongolian Art Museum (see below), this collection offers rich examples of the world’s museums best offerings.

Mongolian art museum toilet

The launch of this Web site is the first step in presenting the museum’s collection and is a long-anticipated turning point in its history. The museum was officially founded in 2005, and since its inception, staff have been collecting images from around the world. This collection is believed by experts to be the world’s largest and was built to showcase the forgotten art that can be found in every museum.

“This museum was founded in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp, who in 1917 produced the sculpture Fountain and changed the way we viewed art,” stated Director Robert Schlemielle. “This piece essentially showcased that art may not be hanging in the proud walls of a museum gallery, but in the common objects and in even in the restroom. So today we launch this website asking some of the same questions about the current art establishment and its high brow art.”

The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art has been an organization for the past three years. The collection features digital works by its hand picked staff and some artist renditions of the selected toilets. The Museum also sells a catalog, select clothing, postcards, posters, prints, and CDs.

Museum of Photography, Tokyo

So if you’re a facility manager of a museum or gallery, make sure to get the recognition you deserve for your fabulous restrooms. The official submission process includes sending an image to: submissions@artmuseumtoilet.org. Museum officials ask that each image be labeled with the name of the museum, the day the photo was taken, and the name of the photographer. All will be posted if the image is selected.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 36 states will experience non-drought-related water shortages in the next 10 years. And, increasingly, facility managers are implementing ways to reduce water consumption in their buildings. This includes plumbing fixtures that use less water to function than in previous years. In terms of toilets, the The National Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) required plumbing fixture manufacturers to reduce toilet water consumption from 3.5 gallons per flush (gpf) to 1.6 gpf. This helped the movement to reduce water usage.

However, there is another toilet technology that uses even less water per flush–High Efficiency Toilets (HETs). These fixtures — defined as a toilet that consumes a minimum of 20% less water than the 1.6 gpf models mandated by EPAct, that is, a maximum of 1.28 gpf — entered the U.S. market in 1998. And with the ongoing pressure to continue conservation efforts, facility managers may want to look at HETs (available from some manufacturers in dual flush models) for their next restroom renovation or new construction project.

When shopping, the EPA’s WaterSense voluntary product-labeling program can be a starting point. The program, launched in 2006, contains a specification for HETs. There are currently HETs from 25 manufacturers that have made the WaterSense list; among this list are American Standard, Kohler, TOTO, and Zurn.

American Standard has made available a white paper “High Efficiency Toilets (HETs): Why ‘Flushing with Confidence’ is Here to Stay”, which provides an overview of why HETs were developed, how American Standard developed its models to achieve powerful flushing performance, and how these low-flow fixtures can aid in water conservation efforts.

Authored by C.J. Lagan, compliance engineering manager for American Standard Brands, the 3-page document can be downloaded, free of charge, at this Web link.

The paper reviews the flushing technologies developed by American Standard, including the company’s methods to harness gravity, use larger flush valves and trapways, efficiently size water spots and well contours, and create water flow dynamics that contributed to performance of the company’s HET collections.

Do you have HETs in your facility? Have they performed as well as previous models? If you don’t have them in your facility, would you consider them?

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.

Earlier this summer, a major new attraction was grabbing headlines at Mount Rainier National Park in Ashford, WA. What was it? You guessed it…a toilet.

Whether it was the highly publicized ribbon-cutting ceremony, the price tag ($70,000), or the fact that the toilet was donated by its manufacturer (Toyo Kogyo) and a popular Mount Rainier drink producer (Morinaga Milk Company), the celebrity composting commode has been doo-ing doing its sister toilet in Mount Fuji proud since early June. Representatives from Mount Rainier National Park and the Japanese non-profit organization Groundwork Mishima activated the new “bio toilet” at Cougar Rock Campground on Monday, June 9, 2008.

The high-tech toilet was donated to the park last fall by Groundwork Mishima, which works with citizens, local governments, and businesses to address environmental issues and promote volunteerism in Japan. The group is active at Mount Fuji, which has a “Sister Mountain” relationship with Mount Rainier National Park.

“We are pleased to continue our long standing relationship with the people of Japan,” said Superintendent Dave Uberuaga (pictured above, along with representatives from Groundwork Mishima and the Japan Volunteers-in-Parks Association). “This bio toilet will be a practical contribution toward our goals of environmental stewardship and sustainable design in Mount Rainier National Park.”

The toilet was installed in late August of last year with the help of students from the Japanese Volunteers-in-Parks Association, who have been contributing volunteer services at Mount Rainier since 1993. Due to the lateness of the season, the toilet was not activated last fall. Its unique design uses cedar chips and natural composting techniques to operate efficiently with very little water and with no odor.

Photo courtesy of Mount Rainier Volunteers.

(Apologies for the potty puns in this post. It’s a Friday Funny, after all, isn’t it?)