Forget About the Toilet . . . Urinate Outside!

Yes, you read right. I'm here to tell you to urinate outside, you were probably raised to use the restroom provided inside the house. Even though it may not be socially correct, it's actually better for the planet by taking your urine outdoors.

Think about it, our ancestors used an outhouse and thought nothing of it. So, by choosing to collect our urine and spread it outdoors, not only are we fertilizing the earth, we are doing something our ancestors also did.

One third of the people on this earth lack water for sanitation purposes, two-thirds of the people get water-borne illnesses, and one-sixth of people on earth lack clean drinking water. By flushing the toilet fewer times than we currently do, we can help to improve that number. By flushing four times per day, using three gallons with each flush multiplied times 365 days a year, this gives us approximately 1000 gallons of drinkable water that we are flushing away. Consider all of the toilets on one block, in one city, in one state, and so on. The number is huge and the amount of water flushed away is phenomenal. Then we have the nerve to cry about our water supply being low. And we are not only considered to have a water crisis, but a clean drinking water crisis.

Should you collect your urine to dump outside, don't save it longer than twenty-four hours. The build-up of ammonia causes the smell to be quite strong, besides, when it is dumped, it may cause damage to plants. So store your urine for one day at the maximum.

In addition, the high nitrogen content in urine could burn the roots of plants, so have your target be away from the plants. Another option for a urine dump site is your compost pile. This will expedite your compost breakdown.

Our urine is also a free source of phosphorous, which the world is running low on. Phosphorous is used in toothpastes, detergents, insecticides, baking power, fertilizer, among other things.

Only 326 quintillion gallons of water are usable by humans.¹ By taking care so that our accidents resulting in contamination of our water supply are at a minimum, we will have more than enough water to go around. However, it takes all of us making an effort to make this a reality.

You can do your part to help preserve our water supply by flushing your toilet bowl fewer times and bring your urine outside. At the same time you will be fertilizing the plants or expediting the breakdown of your compost pile.