It may sound hard to believe, but students at Kingsbury Country Day School in Addison Township are helping protect the environment and conserve resources every time they use the restroom.
A couple weeks ago, Kingsbury had two Kohler waterless urinals installed in the boys restroom at the main school, which serves grades 3-8.
‘It’s pretty ahead of the curve,? said physical education teacher/athletic director Michael Toth, who serves on the school’s Green Committee. ‘Depending on how many uses they normally get, you can save tens of thousands of gallons a year.?
The way it works is fairly simple and quite ingenuous.
Liquid waste passes into the fully-glazed trapway at the base of the urinal through a debris-catching strainer.
The trapway’s unique design slows the flow of the liquid waste as it passes through a sealing liquid which serves as a barrier to block odors.
Because the sealing liquid is less dense than the liquid waste, which is now traveling slower thanks to the trapway’s design, it stays in position and doesn’t get washed away.
Through simple displacement, the liquid waste then makes its way into the waste pipe.
To maintain the urinals, every two weeks the trapway must be flushed with three gallons of water and an ounce of special cleaner. This is done to clear the system and waste lines of any liquid waste and old sealing material.
Three ounces of new sealing liquid are added and the urinal is ready to use again.
According to the Kohler website (www.us.kohler.com), each fixture can save up to 40,000 gallons of water per year.
While most urinals today use one gallon of water per flush, Kingsbury’s previous urinals were old and used three gallons per flush, according to Toth.
Because the school has its own private well and septic system, Kingsbury won’t realize the savings of a facility hooked up to municipal water and sewer systems.
However, the school will conserve its natural water supply and use less electricity to pump from its well, both of which are good for the environment.
It will also put less stress on the septic system, another positive.
And because waterless urinals don’t require users to touch a flush valve and are designed to virtually eliminate splashing, they are considered very hygienic.
‘It’s a lot more sanitary than a regular urinal,? said Toth, who had been researching them for two years. ‘When the money finally became available, I said we’ve got to get them.?
Toth was grateful to Schwartz Plumbing, Inc. in Rochester Hills, which paid about half the cost for the waterless urinals.
If all goes well, Kingsbury hopes to install another three waterless urinals for the school’s gym.
Toth hopes the new urinals will help Kingsbury with its application to earn a Michigan Green School designation.
Enacted in 2006, the Michigan Green School Initiative is a statewide program open to all K-12 schools, public and private and designed to teach students ecological responsibility by making them stewards of natural resources.
Green school status is achieved by successful participation in at least 10 out of 20 specific environmental activities such as recycling paper, adopting an endangered animal, instituting an energy savings program and observing Earth Day.
‘We’re going for the Emerald status,? Toth said. ‘That’s the highest you can get.?
Emerald status is achieved when a school completes at least 15 of the eco-activities.