University Bids Adieu To The Extravagant Flush

Published
Illustration by Janice Leung

New Schoolers flush the university’s toilets about 5 million times a year, consuming an average of about 4 gallons per flush, or about 20 million gallons a year—enough to fill 30 Olympic swimming pools and still have about 100,000 gallons left over. But that’s all about to change, the university says.

The New School’s porcelain potties are getting a flush reduction, converting them into low-flow toilets, in efforts of furthering their sustainability and conservation LEED certification.

Provost Tim Marshall announced at a Town Hall Meeting on April 7, that the university is working towards lowering their water consumption by replacing all of the toilets on campus with new low-flow fixtures. Low-flow toilets use about 1.5 gallons per flush versus the 4 gallons per flush from a regular toilet and are also known to cut costs. Once the project is complete, the annual water consumption is expected to be reduced by 12 million gallons

“We’re replacing all of the toilets in the campus to reduce water consumption by 12 million gallons a year,” said Marshall. “And with [solid] waste we’re looking at increased recycling efforts to decrease our landfill waste by 5% in the immediate future.”

The New School will start to replace toilets as early as this summer, and expect to be completely finished in three years, replacing 1/3 of the toilets each summer break.

Because, the University Center already has low-flow toilets it  won’t be included in the project. According to the university, the U.C. toilets have already saved 4.5 million gallons of water this  year.

“The University Center’s innovative water reduction system will cut potable water usage by 74 percent and reduce sewer discharges by 89 percent, making it one of New York’s lowest-impact missed-use high-rises buildings,” states the University Center Sustainability webpage.

According to the University Center Water Conservation webpage, the university has also “upgraded all shower heads on campus to low-flow models and installed aerators on all sinks, toilets and urinals in 2012, saving [an additional] 4.5M gallons of water annually.”

Exactly which fixtures will be placed where depends on the unique plumbing connections at each location.

“The replacement toilets vary by location and existing plumbing connections,” stated the New School. “We are conducting an inventory of all water closets in order to select the appropriate low-flow fixture for each location.”

The cost for the project is yet to be determined, as the school is still in the request for proposal process.

So kiss the 4-gallon flush goodbye and say hello to the new sustainable flush, in due time