Meatless Mondays? Not yet, but we are going to talk about toilets! YAY!

So, Meatless Mondays is not quite ready to get back up and going (don't worry, I haven't stopped doing meatless Mondays, I still eat meat free every Monday, and I actually have about 4 months of documentation and articles written almost ready to go). In the future Meatless Mondays will include 2 recipes and experiences with them, they will all be old at first but eventually, they will eventually be an old one, and the one I had the week before, and then eventually the one I had the week before. They will also be posted very early on Monday, so you can try the recipes that day! So, stay tuned.

Today though, we are going to have a brief conversation about toilets. Toilets (next to showers), are the most water using device in most people's homes. First off by just replacing a 3.5 GPF toilet with a 1.6 GPF toilet can save a family of four 16,000 gallons of water per year. That is a lot of wasted water, and wasted money. I have heard many times about replacing toilets, or making sure new toilets that you buy are low flows, but the truth is, many of us are not in a position to buy a new commode, or really can't (you rent). 

A reader brought this product to my attention, and I did some research on toilets and new waves of toilets (I will be honest, I am not a toilet expert). The new thing is toilets (or relatively new), is the dual flush system. You have two flushes, one for paper and water, and one for "when you need a full flush" as the demonstration video put it. The flush for just paper and water is just half the tank. The second flush uses the whole tank. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Here is the demonstration video:

The MJSI HydroRight Drop-In Dual Flush Converter is available over at Amazon.com for less than twenty dollars, and is sitting at a four star review right now from almost three hundred customer reviews. Has anyone tried this, or a similar product? What are your thoughts? It might be something that I invest in and play around with and see how it works (hard to judge my water usage, because I don't get charged per gallon like normal people). Let me know what you think?!

Product page on Amazon: here.

---Justin J. Stewart (...link provided by Tiffany McFarland)

Phoenix Zoo teams up with water conservation group.

...link via Laura Stewart

The Phoenix Zoo has teamed up with water conservation advocacy group Water Use It Wisely. Water Use It Wisely, is an excellent wealth of information on simple water saving tips that the whole family can use, and specifically breaks it down to different regions in the country so you can see what water saving techniques are good in your area. There is a list of over 100 different way to conserve water, from the very obvious to the very creative, and also ways for you to be able help and spread the word. The website is also children interactive, so you can start teaching your children the importance of saving water.

Here is a great video and link off of the site that tells Arizonians where they can start looking for to save water, and many of these ideas can be applied to anyone:

http://wateruseitwisely.com/region/arizona/water-challenge/

Take a look around on the site. Check out what it says for your area of the country, and let me know what you think!

---Justin J. Stewart (link via Laura Stewart)