I was just thinking about where i'd set categories of water savings in the home. There is no judgement here, only observations, and this is only in my opinion. Where do you fall?

This one is strictly for toilets!

Most Persons -
Do nothing. Never think about it.

Green Beginners -
Low flow toilet and/or
Water tank has a brick or other water displacement object in it.

True Greenies -
Low flow toilets AND water displacement object.
Uses the rule of "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."

Expert Greenies -
Composting toilets that use little to no city or well water.
Uses a Humanure system or is thinking about it.

What level are you?

Well, I moved into my husbands home after we got married so I think we have two newer toilets which are more efficient than the older ones. We do have one toilet from the 1970's tho.

I'm always concerned about the low flow toilets. My experience has been that I need to flush them two or more times to get everything down. that ends up being more wasteful than a regular toilet.

Actually, Jeanne, even flushing a low flow toilet a few times is still many gallons less than flushing an older toilet even once. I always say to people to get the low flow toilet and not sweat a few flushes.

Plus the extra flushes wastes my time and is frustrating to me. LOL

of course, it would simply be easier to fill a bucket and dump it quickly into the bowl to manually flush it At least you would know exactly how much water you are using.

I love the dump a bucket idea! Many people keep a bucket in the shower to catch the 'clear water' that runs down the drain while waiting for the water to heat up. Then they flush the toilet with that. It's so beautifully simple!

I am wondering if i should change the title of Expert Greenie to Extreme Greenie.

For example, with toilets I fall into the expert/extreme category. I have set up a homemade composting toilet, with toilet cloth instead of expensive toilet paper. Although when i do use TP i do compost it.

At this time I have only gone so far as to use my system with urine, so i am not perfectly extreme yet. I will document how this all goes in this forum. If anyone has any questions, I am happy to discuss it.

Or you could get a copy of Liquid Gold, by Carol Steinfeld. I will add my review of this useful booklet to this thread when i have it written.

Sooo, expert? or extreme?