Americans under the age of 30 very likely have no memory of household toilets that work well. They probably think nothing of clogged toilet tanks and other such household nuisances. They are used to it by now.
This is sad. A generation ago, toilets worked really well.
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You didn’t need to have a plunger nearby. You didn’t have to replace various parts of your toilet every few months.
Mostly, you could be certain your toilet would flush with one pull of the lever. Three and four gallons would blast through the bowl and keep it clean. This rushing water would also keep the pipes clean.
I have a vague memory of this. But like some dystopian novel in which an idyllic past has been flushed down a memory hole, people today are completely unaware of what it is like to have a working toilet.
A basic requirement of civilization — meaning health and cleanliness, and a limited exposure to poisonous disease — is that we figure out ways to dispose of human waste. It was a big deal in the ancient world. Rome was a marvel of the world with its aqueducts that anticipated the best of modern sanitation.
The technology regressed after the fall of Rome and didn’t quite recover for another 1,500 years. A lack of sanitation in the meantime contributed mightily to the plagues. Once modernity was born, indoor plumbing was the first to arrive. In the 20th century, the problem was solved with great plumbing and fixtures.
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Leave it to Congress to revert the progress of three millennia. In 1992, the Energy Policy Act was passed and came into effect in 1994. The law required that all toilets sold in the U.S. use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush — less than half the water usually used.
The result was awful. People would buy new toilets or move into new homes and be startled to discover that something they had taken for granted for ages suddenly stopped working.
“Why is my new toilet causing so many problems?” “Why is it clogging all the time?” “What is that strange stink?” “Why am I having to crawl around the basement looking for that old plunger?”
Then there was a huge shift in the toilet paper market. Paper once used only for the most primitive systems and in prisons became common.
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Black markets developed. You could buy large-tank toilets online briefly, but the supply ran out. Then a porcelain-running market developed between the U.S. and Canada, until border control tightened. Fines increased to $2,500 for any plumber in the U.S. who installed one, and inspectors were forced to report them.
Today, it is next to impossible to find a large tank toilet in the U.S.
Several lawmakers tried to repeal the law. As with most things Congress does, legislators had no clue about what they had done. They had rolled back indoor plumbing, a very foundation of civilization. But it is much easier to ruin things with regulations than it is to repeal those regulations. So the push came to naught.
And yes, there have been some improvements by manufacturers over time — new shapes, air blasts, different inner workings, and so on. But, in the end, when you are only working with 1.6 gallons, the paltry amount of water is good for some things but not for others.
What was the purpose of all of this? We are often told how much water we are saving. What we are not told is that domestic water use in general, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, is 1 percent of total water use. That includes your dishwasher, washing machine, showers, drinking water, toilets, even the water you use for your lawn. The savings are negligible and essentially pointless.
If you and I do not have a toilet that works well in our own homes, something has gone very wrong with the state of civilization itself.
And look at the cost! The whole thing is outrageous. If you and I do not have a toilet that works well in our own homes, something has gone very wrong with the state of civilization itself.
As long as the technology is available, and we are willing to pay for it, it is a human right.
Next time your toilet clogs, turn your embarrassment to anger and demand a change.
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