The waterless way

Waterless urinals: Cheap. Green. But many think ‘gross’ | csmonitor.com

Here's an interesting article (honest!) about a device that's becoming more common. They are cleaner than regular urinals, apparently:

“In traditional urinals, the surfaces on the inside are wet much of the time, and you get biofilms of growing organisms,” says Prof. Charles Gerba, an Arizona State University microbiologist who has researched surface contamination in public restrooms.

Flushing further creates a spray that lands on the rim and floor, creating a breeding ground for microorganisms.

“If easily-maintainable, water-free urinals had been developed first, no one would use conventional urinals because of all the contamination they cause,” he adds.

Maybe. But they don't stop the problem of men who miss or drip onto the floor near the urinal itself.

[Speaking of which, for years now, I have been wondering who it is was who thought up the terrible design of metal urinals that extend down and below floor level, with a metal grid on which to stand. For any women reading this who haven't partied with Rugby League players, the idea is for the man to stand on the grid so that any drips fall through it and into the urinal tray which extends below your feet. These are, I think, a universally unpopular design, as the tray beneath the feet does not usually drain well and smells, and the grid itself gets urine soaked and grotty anyway, to the extent that some men - especially if wearing thongs or other insubstantial footwear - will stand back from grid anyway, ensuring that the point of the design is completely lost.]

But there's something else to be learned from this article. If you are a journalist who gets an invite to attend the next WTO meeting, make sure you go to the right one:

In rural regions of the third-world where sanitary infrastructure is nearly nonexistent, these urinals present the option of leapfrogging past systems that use up precious water, says Jack Sim, an advocate of compost toilets. In 2002, he launched the World Toilet Organization, a nonprofit group based in Singapore and committed to improving toilet facilities worldwide.