Dual Flush Toilet

My apologies for resorting to potty humor, but when I was at Dartmouth I found the delicate phrasing of this sign above a dual-flush toilet pretty amusing.

I think this needs to make its way into everyday speech--"Man... I gotta take a seriously high demand, or something's gonna burst!"

The reason why I was reminded to post this image was this New York Times editorial, by Robert Morris, arguing for consuming water in less stupid ways. I.e., we treat all domestic water to drinking quality, and then drink less than 1% of that water (according to the editorial). And we use that same water to flush toilets. Ugh... the waste of that process has always struck me--it's similar to how invaders sacking a city would destroy its water supply--throw dead animals and feces down the well. Of course, insert lawn irrigation rant here as well.

However, plumbing codes are probably the most hidebound, technophobic, and fragmented buildings codes that exist--more than other codes, the whim of local inspectors or unions holds sway (corrugated stainless steel tubing in California, as an example). As a result, it's not a rational process, and if you want to change the code, the battle has to be fought one municipality at a time. Therefore, I have little hope of these changes (e.g., separate water for flush/irrigation, graywater systems, etc.) making much headway.