Guys pee in the shower. Not necessarily all the time or on a regular basis, but every once in a while. Any guy who tells you he has never peed in the shower is definitely lying. Usually, a guy will do it out of laziness. The usual scenerio goes like this: a guy realizes he has to pee, but he's already standing under the warm stream of water and doesn't want to have to get out and run to the toilet dripping wet, so he lets it go down the drain because, after all, who's going to know? Well, he may not have realized it, but Mr. Lazy McUrinator just helped save the planet.We think of urine as dirty and disgusting. Nobody wants to sit on a toilet seat that has dried urine spots on it from some guy that missed or splashed. It looks gross, it smells gross and we get rid of it as quickly as possible. But the truth of the matter is that urine is sterile (unless you have a urinary tract infection). In fact, if you were dying of thirst in the desert, you COULD drink your own urine (although the benefits of such a technique are debatable) until you were able to find water. Astronauts, military personnel and people lost in the wilderness have all had to do this to stay alive. Bear Grylls drank his own urine using snake skin as some kind of filter on Man vs. Wild. So if it's sterile, you can drink it, and it is washed right down the drain anyway, is peeing in the shower really so bad? Some will still say yes, and they're free to disagree, but as far as cleanliness and civility goes, I say "Pee away."
I'll go one step further though. Not only is peeing in the shower ok, it's actually morally admirable. Most people have to pee first thing when they wake up in the morning. Most people also shower first thing in the morning. That's a lot of water usage. If you can eliminate one of these, that's saving a heck of a lot of water. There are 304,000,000 Americans. The average flush uses 9 liters of water. If every American were to pee in the shower in the morning rather than in the toilet, that would save 100 BILLION liters of water per year. Even if only 1 out of every 10 Americans did this, it would save 10 BILLION liters of water per year. You alone could save 3285 liter (~1000 gallons) of water each year just by peeing in the shower each morning. Combine this new habit with a water-saving device in the toilet, a front-loading energy-efficient washer (washers' water-efficiency rankings can be found here), a water-efficient shower head, and even a water recycling system to water your lawn, and you're in some serious water saving business!
If you're not convinced yet, consider the following:
1.2 billion people lack access to clean water. The World Health Organization says that at any time, up to half of humanity has one of the six main diseases -- diarrhea, schistosomiasis, or trachoma, or infestation with ascaris, guinea worm, or hookworm -- associated with poor drinking water and inadequate sanitation. About 5 million people die each year from poor drinking water, poor sanitation, or a dirty home environment -- often resulting from water shortage. Already, wars are being fought over water and many experts believe that most wars of the future will be fought over water, not land or oil. It is estimated that the world could be facing a global water shortage as soon as 2025, and that by this same date, Americans will consume 10% of the global houshold water consumption, despite only making up 4% of the world's population. In the end, our excessive water usage has direct social, economic and environmental effects.
I have certainly been guilty of water waste and there's still much more I need to do. It may not be a huge deal to most, but it seems of particular waste to me to use 9 gallons of water every morning that does not need to be used, just so I don't have to suffer the indignity of a faint urine smell for a few short seconds. Some may champion other methods of cutting down on water consumption, but this one just seems so easy to do that it's impossible to ignore.
So to all the Mr. Lazy McUrinators out there: I salute you.
