Latest Toilets Stories

The mayor-elect of Portland, Ore., has inaugurated the first of a planned series of public toilets in the city with a ceremonial first flush. Mayor-elect Sam Adams and other community leaders gathered Monday on Northwest Glisan Street to unveil the first Portland Loo, which cost the city about $140,000 to design and build, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Tuesday. City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who designed the toilet as commissioner of the Water Bureau, said the next Portland Loos will...

Inventors of the Potty Watch Find Success Despite Bad Economy SANDY, Utah, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The American economy may be finishing its worst year in decades, but don't expect Alan & Pamela Parkinson to be looking for a bailout any time soon. These parent-inventors have turned an idea for a toilet training timer (pottytimeinc.com) into a successful business that is growing exponentially, thanks to word-of-mouth advertising and the power of the internet. "The old adage 'build a...

A New Jersey woman has filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania bar, claiming that a faulty toilet seat caused her to fall into the commode. Kathleen Hewko of Delran claims she still suffers from a back injury inflicted by the fall at Starters in Lower Saucon Township, The Allentown Morning Call reports. She is seeking $150,000 from the bar and Kohler Co., the toilet's manufacturer. Her husband, John, is asking for $75,000 for loss of consortium. Her lawyer, John D. Cirrinicione of...

An 18-year-old man from Big Rock, Ill., allegedly set fire to a church bathroom stall and burned two portable toilets in a single night, police said. Police in Cary, Ill., said Thomas J. Meehan allegedly set fire to a St. Peter and Paul Church bathroom stall on Oct. 10, before conducting similar arson with two portable toilets, the Daily Herald newspaper in Arlington Heights, Ill., reported Thursday. Cary Police Detective Susan Ellis said an anonymous tip linked Meehan to the three fires,...

Organizers of a false-feces demonstration in front of a Bern, Switzerland, railway station say the event was aimed at raising awareness of toilet shortages. Helvetas, the Swiss Association for International Cooperation, said campaigners piled the rubber droppings outside the city's main railway station Wednesday to mark World Toilet Day, a day designed to draw attention to sanitation problems around the world, The Sun reported Wednesday. The association said an estimated 2.6 billion people...

Activists in Washington used the occasion of National Toilet Day to call for increased access to proper bathrooms for everyone. Organizers delivered lunch-hour speeches Wednesday on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol where the traveling art exhibit Sanitation is Dignity was also on display. The advocacy group Water Advocates said in a written statement that the humble toilet is actually a luxury in many areas of the world. And that spells trouble in the form of contaminated water and the...

The twin office towers of Watt Plaza in Century City are the first Class A commercial high rises in Los Angeles to undergo a 100% retrofit with Falcon Waterfree urinals. The resulting 2.2 million gallon per year water savings at this single building provides welcome relief for the drought stricken area and exemplifies the success of comprehensive planning by local officials. This retrofit of Watt Plaza's urinals comes as Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles Department of Water and...

When it comes to the urinals at its twin 23-story office towers in Century City, Watt Plaza has gone waterfree. In completing the replacement of all of the building's 88 traditional urinals with water-free alternatives, Watt Plaza becomes the first Class A office property in Los Angeles to have a complete system of the environmentally-superior technology. The move, estimated to save 2.2 million gallons of water annually, underscores Watt Companies' ongoing commitment to sustainability....

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- With the price at the pump on the rise, it may be difficult to imagine a tank that can actually help you save. Well, think toilet tank. When compared to all the other uses of water in the home, a leaky toilet can be a major culprit, wasting hundreds of gallons of water a day if not functioning properly. Depending on the severity of the leak and water rates in the area, a leaky toilet can add $100 or more per year onto a homeowner's water...

By Joan Morris Fluffing and folding the news Going boldly Our employers over the years have asked us for some odd things (showing up on time, meeting deadlines -- crazy things), but we think NASA takes the cake. The urinal cake, that is. One of the space agency's contractors, Hamilton Sundstrand, has asked employees to, excuse the imagery, hand over their pee for use in testing a space toilet that will orbit the moon for future missions there. Since real urine is full of unseen solids...