Eli5: Why do we use clean, potable water in toilets?
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It’s not cost effective. We’d spend more money and time managing extra water systems.
It would be a little more practical to build new homes with a grey water system that is local to that home. So rain water or hand wash basins could be collected to water plants and flush toilets.
There would still be extra maintenance to ensure they remain functional.
Another gain you could make would be to reduce the amount of water being flushed anyway. Older toilets flush way too much water to get the job done..
But again the water, energy and cost involved in replacing the toilets may be greater than saved over the lifetime of the toilet…
It’s probably be more efficient at this stage to improve our ageing water infrastructure and stop leaks. A recent survey found that my local water company lost 58% of the water it put into the system through leakages. Let’s sort that out first, then worry about the small gains from flushing toilets with grey water.
Also stopping single use plastic bottles! You could probably fill a bottle 1000 times over for the cost of a plastic one… Plus that plastic bottle also costs water the make, probably more than it holds.
EDIT: I had a look for stats… Apparently average plastic water bottle takes around 4-5 litres of water to make! So that’s yet another reason to keep with tap water and improve the infrastructure for that.
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