Green: A Sign in Itself

Green is the new black. We all know that by now, but still, we're thinking: what if green—as in the color—became the international symbol to cue greener behavior?

In a friend's kitchen and need to find the compost bin Look for the green bin. Want to save energy? Flip the green switch.

Our inspiration? The men's room in the airport. (Insert Senator Craig joke here.)

This familiar—but green—handle has a new twist: push down for the regular, full flush; lift up for a flush that uses less water. We especially like that this appears to be a retrofit: no need to buy a whole new toilet—just replace a valve. We need more things like that for our homes!

And for those living in full-pressure apartment buildings with tankless toilets, this valve should be relatively easy for a plumber to retrofit; add up the savings in water for your landlord, and you just might make the case.

The valve (apparently the technical term is flushometer!) is made by Sloan and called the Uppercut. It reduces water use from 1.6 gallons to 1.1 gallon per flush when lifted up. And that distinctive green color? It's an antimicrobial coating.

More resources:

• Dual-Flush Toilets: How To Choose
• Toliet Technologies
• Green Ideas: Conserving Water with a Soda Bottle

Comments (5)

I like this idea. We'll have to see if we can get this done at home. Living on the dry plains we try and follow the "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" theory, but it has always bothered me. Some days I conserve water and some days my inner clean freak makes me flush.

posted by Green Me on November 26th 2007 at 8:59am
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When I was in israel they had something similar- though they were push-button flushes. There was a big button with a little button inside it. Press the little button and it was a low-volume flush. Press the big button and it was the solid-waste flush. I loved it, and wish we could have those here.

posted by Ether Maiden on November 26th 2007 at 9:01am
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That is very cool!

I just installed two home depot two flush toilets- I love how fast the things stop flushing.

My dad also just replaced a 30 year old toilet with a two-flush toilet. Even my dad is going green!

posted by michael d bailey on November 26th 2007 at 10:05am
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In Australia we have the double-button system, but I really like the diagram above the handle for this lever system. The number of drops makes it quite clear what will happen :)

posted by stringy on November 26th 2007 at 3:27pm
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Ether Maiden,

Check out
this link (also referenced above) for dual flush toilets on sale in the US that you can install at home.

Jonathan

posted by jonathanb - co-editor, AT/re-nest on November 26th 2007 at 5:08pm
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