Petition to Bring Back Manually Flushing Toilets
February 3, 2013
Tina Czaplinska Co-Editor-in-Chief In light of the Green Cup Challenge, Latin has stressed the importance of recycling, of keeping our classrooms crazy cold, and of not wasting too much paper on signs but has been forgetting about one of the most important resources: water. In some of the most vital rooms at Latin, the bathrooms, water flushes automatically—sometimes completely sporadically, sometimes more than once in a row, and sometimes when you don’t even need it to. Each flush wastes 3.5 gallons of water. All that water is literally going down the toilet. Also, in light of recent school related tragedies, manual flushing toilets might be necessary in a completely different sense. During lockdown drills, students are instructed to go to the nearest bathroom if unable to get to a classroom and sit on the toilet with their feet up. Though covering the flush sensor with a piece of toilet paper stops the flushing, a sliver of toilet paper can easily fall off and hardly puts anyone’s mind at ease. So, in hopes of protecting our environment in more ways than one, please sign this petition to bring back manually flushing toilets. Sincerely, The Forum **Editor’s Note: Commenting your name at the end of this article counts as one “signature.”**]]>
amcglinn • Feb 17, 2013 at 11:10 am
I agree with Pleshette– enviro flushers.We should also do away with trays in the cafeteria and provide recycling bins for plastic bottles and cans in every hallway (I wish we wouldn’t sell bottled water, but that might be a bit radical for some).
epleshette • Feb 7, 2013 at 5:44 pm
I like the 1 drop, 3 drop enviro flushers. I affirm with this petition – if faculty can do so!
eisaacs • Feb 6, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Emma Isaacs
jweisber • Feb 6, 2013 at 3:15 pm
Jordyn Weisberg
yarroyo2 • Feb 6, 2013 at 11:41 am
Yulissa Arroyo
I agree with Tempone I dont think trays are always necessary and having to wash them wastes energy and water
Scout • Feb 5, 2013 at 6:14 pm
Scout Baker
ftempone • Feb 5, 2013 at 6:09 pm
William makes a lot of sense here. I’m not sure why there’s a petition for toilet flushing. Plus, I don’t want to touch a toilet handle. I want as much of a hands-free experience when it comes to the toilet as humanly possible. In short: I want Steven Grotewold’s bathroom. You should ask him about it.
How about getting rid of trays in the cafeteria? That would save water.
modier • Feb 5, 2013 at 2:48 pm
MAGGIE ODIER
rnelson • Feb 5, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Riley Nelson
Thats my signature, but I would like to add there’s also the factor of the toilet splashing up into your butt when it flushes while you’re sitting on it. That’s disgusting. Just another factor as to why they should be replaced.
bhennessy • Feb 5, 2013 at 10:23 am
I’ve gotten so used to auto-flushing toilets, sometimes I forget to flush the toilet at home (or in other non-auto situations). #help #firstworldproblems #thatslatin
William • Feb 5, 2013 at 1:56 am
First of all, I don’t think the turbine and solar panels are admirable. I not only agree with your assessment that the changes are minute, I think that they contributed to global warming by being trucked across the country. By the way, I have no idea if manual flush toilets save water because I have never seen a study. I was under the impression that auto flush toilets are supposed to use the same amount of water by default, and can be set to use less. With regards to water use, I’d like to see a comparison of the school’s water bill before and after making the change. If the change costed more than about 5% of the cost of going back then I think it might be worth doing, otherwise it is time and money down the toilet. The drawback to manual flush is the spread of germs which is a more serious concern in my view than an accidental flush alerting a gunman. The fact is however, that green action is by natural economic law, not cost effective. If it was cost effective, it would simply be action, and not green action. It also offended me when I heard a few years back that Latin was limiting student aid, while at the same time pouring record amounts of cash into green projects. If Latin wants to do these things, great, but the money should be raised by parents and students like everything else, not taken out of the school’s general funds. If people at latin are in support, they should do more than sign the petition, they should pony up to make this change.
rstone • Feb 5, 2013 at 12:59 am
I think the focus of this article, this petition, and this movement is to highlight the idea that, although the Latin community might be making strides to improve its eco-friendly identity, it hasn’t been making the changes that are really needed. We’ve built a wind turbine and a rooftop garden so far, and although these things are certainly admirable, they have created (somewhat) negligible amounts of change. I, personally, don’t want green action to be an accoutrement anymore, and so I have supported The Forum in its advocacy of a change that affects us all on a daily (or more) basis.
What we’re saying isn’t completely revolutionary: college campuses have already been making this switch in favor of the environment (http://today.duke.edu/2007/12/autoflush.html), and while you say that water waste has no environmental impact on Chicago, you can’t dispute the fact that automatic toilets do, by default, waste more water than manual flush toilets.
We don’t have cost estimates because no one has taken any step in making this change.
That’s our point.
We haven’t entertained overhauling an existing aspect of our school’s infrastructure because we’ve been focused on smaller (and prettier) reforms. If the school sees that there is enough interest, perhaps this petition can lead to real change. What we’ve seen here (from already a record-ish high of Forum comments) is that people at Latin are in support.
jmowatt • Feb 4, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Julian Mowatt
William • Feb 4, 2013 at 11:35 pm
I reject this petition for the following reasons, 1) I don’t see any estimate to what this would cost and I can’t sign this without all the facts. 2) Assuming the cost would likely be thousands of dollars to replace the dozens of toilets, I feel the money would be better served for other purposes including environmental. I feel that sometimes people at Latin forget that our school is less than half a mile from the largest fresh water source in the world. We will never run out of water in chicago. Excess water use is bad from a cost perspective, but has little to no environmental impact in Chicago. I feel that this money would be better served towards fixing the building’s horrible ventilation system. That would help not only the environment, but save the school some real money. Plus we would all enjoy classrooms that were at a constant temperature. Lastly, I say this with all seriousness, a spontaneous flush is less likely to alert a gunman to kill a student than about anything else I can think of. A Latin student is a thousand times more likely to die as a result of getting fat from eating too many snickers bars sold in the cafeteria, or drinking too many gatorades. I literally cannot think of something less likely to kill me than automatic flushing.
laraysi • Feb 4, 2013 at 11:16 pm
Lita Araysi
mbabingt • Feb 4, 2013 at 10:58 pm
Margot Babington
msingh • Feb 4, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Mehr Singh
efinch • Feb 4, 2013 at 9:27 pm
Erich Finch
sfript • Feb 4, 2013 at 6:42 pm
S. D. Fript
emarks2 • Feb 4, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Erika Marks
pkoya • Feb 4, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Prianka Koya
ccollins • Feb 4, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Charlotte Collins
mfoler • Feb 4, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Megan Foler
pwiggin • Feb 4, 2013 at 11:34 am
Peter Wiggin
Caroline • Feb 4, 2013 at 1:33 am
Caroline Chu
fotoole2 • Feb 3, 2013 at 10:56 pm
Frani O’Toole!
ebrandel • Feb 3, 2013 at 9:47 pm
Erik Brandel-Tanis
kgarrett • Feb 3, 2013 at 9:37 pm
Kristen Garret yoz.
gebach • Feb 3, 2013 at 9:32 pm
Grace Ebach!
Hedy • Feb 3, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Hedy Gutfreund!
rstone • Feb 3, 2013 at 9:25 pm
RACHEL STONE.