The flushing of toilets in gentlemen's lavatories in public places such as stadiums, restaurants and pubs, cost the owners a fortune in clean water each year. But that could change with a Danish patented water-free urinal that is gaining popularity around the world.
The roar of 30,000 enthusiastic spectators shakes the air at Brøndby Stadium. Denmark's title-hungry football team has done it again and the club's enthusiastic supporters flock to the bar at half time; time for a quick beer and some lively chat.
Football and beer are culturally connected, but beer in also means beer out. Physiologically, the phenomenon makes something as mundane as urinals into an important logistic part of the entire football culture.
If just half of the spectators at Brøndby Stadium respond to nature's call at the end of a football match, it means flushing the toilets with about 60,000 litres of water. Clean water is flushed directly into the sewers. Over a full year, it gives Brøndby a water bill of $27,000, just for flushing the urinals used by male spectators. Added to that, there is the costly cleaning and ever present odour problems.
To tackle the problem, Brøndby Stadium exchanged its water flushing urinals with 224 water-free bowls from Uridan, available from Watersave Australia . The bowls have given Brøndby Stadium 100% savings on water, a completely odour free environment and some cleaning-friendly toilets.
The urinal works by putting a blocking fluid into the water trap. The fluid has a lower specific gravity than urine, which simply goes through the fluid and directly into the drain. The fluid stays in the water trap and prevents any obnoxious smells. After 7,000 uses, a special device empties the water trap and fresh blocking fluid is then poured in.
Besides saving water on flushing, water-free urinals offer considerable savings on installation in new buildings with regard to water pipes, electrical installations and photocells.
The success of Uridan is in large part down to the design of its urinals, which has purposefully been made cleaning-friendly, without edges or crevices, which can give rise to obnoxious smells.
The urinals are made in seven different colours, and are available in both adult and children sizes. The design looks clean and simple, a fact, which numerous tests have shown, encourages general order in public toilets, where the urinals have been placed.