Environmental Enlightenment #18 (If It's Yellow Let It Mellow)

Yep, you read the title correctly and I'm sure that most of us have heard the phrase, "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." For those who haven't heard the phrase before, the first part means that while using the restroom one wouldn't flush the toilet after urinating and instead "let it mellow." The second part of the phrase refers to always flushing after solid waste. Some people get really grossed out by this concept and honestly I don't see any rational reason for it. Also, I don't know why I didn't start doing this sooner!

Older toilets can use up to 5 gallons of water per flush, new low-flow toilets are usually around 1.25 gallons and the average household toilet is around 2 gallons per flush. When you think about it, why use so much CLEAN water (that's right, toilet water is actually drinkable) to flush away such a small amount of STERILE urine? In an effort to conserve our resources I'm choosing to let it mellow. It's proving to be a bit of a task to get the boyfriend on board. He claims "force of habit" every time I hear him flush. For now I'm giving him a grace period to adjust.

It seems that in reading about the "let it mellow" practice most of the time it raises some household conflict, because not everyone is okay with it, but there are other options. As I mentioned above there are low-flow toilets which decrease the amount of water used in every flush and even toilets that use no water at all. Also, toilets can be flushed using rain water! Most interesting to me is the composting toilet which, you guessed it, composts your waste.

For financial reasons I'm unable to overhaul and remodel my bathroom at this time which is why I'll stick with the passive-aggressive "let it mellow" technique. I should also mention that utilizing this technique will save water, but might cause your toilet to need a cleaning more frequently. For cleaning the toilet in an environmentally friendly way I suggest Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner which I can now find at my local Target.

I encourage everyone to at least try out the "let it mellow" technique. I promise it's not as gross as you might think. Although, I do think I'll be flushing when I have guests over, because I'm still somewhat susceptible to social stigmas. But maybe in the future I can get my guests on board too!