Ideal Bite

Last week, I did my office products shop from OfficeDepot store at couponalbum.com with good discounted prices..

I haven't tried / bought this yet, but Real Goods (www.realgoodscatalog.com) sells a controllable flusher that supposedly converts any toilet to a 1-2 style flusher. The product is at http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/02-0205

In Japan, they have a water saving toilet that is really neat. There's a small sink on top of the toilet tank lid. When you flush, the water first goes through the faucet in the little sink so you can wash your hands before it goes into the toilet bowl. So cool! Here's a picture: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/07/wash_your_hands.php

Toto also makes a dual-flush toilet, the Aquia, which may be more available in some areas (like Pittsburgh, where I am) than Caroma. The installation is a bit unusual, having a skirted bottom around an underneath part (aargh, it's PVC which I'm generally trying to avoid) and there is one error in the instructions (need a larger size hole for some of the screw anchors), but the toilet works fine.

Or you can hold off on the flush when you go #1 & flush every other time...just a thought.

ah...the throwback weekend. those can be brutal. kohler makes a great dual flush toilet, the Sterling Rockton that we have used on jobs. it does the job well, and saves the average American family of four approximately 6,000 gallons of water each year. with more than 1.8 million housing starts each year, that's more than 10,800,000,000 gallons of water preserved each year! not to mention the costs associated with all the bad stuff we mix into our waste water flows...medications, toxic chemicals, etc... there's a really cool slide out there showing how small our water resources really are...if i can find it, i'll post it! and actual toilet flushing studies exist out there, with some soy-by-product mimicking the real thing (the photos are great...i'd definitely

Thanks for the info about the controllable flusher from Gaiam, Aubree. I've added two to my holiday wishlist, which I'm creating myself using the Alternative Gift Registry site: www.alternativegiftregistry.org

Don't know if this will get to Jen but...I looked at her photo album that was attached to the "watch me feed the chickens w/ grandma" picture (i swear i'm not weird, just home alone w/ an infant). As someone who used to ride a lot, tell her she has a BEAUTIFUL horse and I'm so jealous.

Yes, as mentioned above the Japanese toilets are incredibly cool. Don't know if they have them available here, but they should. All the water in the toilet is essentially "grey water", meaning it goes through the faucet first for you to wash your hands, then fills the toilet.

Hi, I have an issue that, I hope, is worthy of the Bite. Perhaps you have already addressed this, and if not, perhaps you can help. The metal arms (or whatever they are called) that hold my toilet seat to the toilet base consistently break. According to my local hardware store, the industry doesn't make replacement arms so I have to purchase a whole new toilet seat. This industry "monopoly" is crazy and unreal to me. I don't want to chuck my toilet seat in the landfill every time the arms break. I would just like to fix/replace the arms. Can you folks help? Is there an organic toilet seat that is environmentally friendly? Perhaps with arms that are replaceable? Thanks and Peace to you... Laura