duplication

Here is one fundamental culprit of environmental destruction. It is called duplication, or to be more numerically correct, quadruplication or quintuplication. It is the basis of the consumer society that we live in. Let's start with a simple example: the toilet, often called the bathroom or restroom for modesty reasons.

It all started with an outhouse located some distance from the main dwelling, or, when space was tight in a lean-too building. That made good sense as toilets are associated with smells and sounds that are somewhat obnoxious and distasteful. 

Having an outhouse can be problematic, especially for the elderly and the obese and those who cannot walk easily. It is also a chilly experience in winter especially in those climates that have harsh winters. To say nothing of night time evacuation, something that may affect the younger, the elderly, and the infirm. The night pail with cover provides some relief but it is not an appealing solution.

To solve these problems engineers devised a remedy that -all things considered- is very wasteful and very inefficient. The remedy is the flush toilet with siphon. The siphon is a device, a kink in the tubing, that retains some water and thereby blocks offending smells from rising up. But it also prevents material from going down, and it needs a certain amount of water to block the pipe.

So we flush. We are so used to flushing that many of us can no longer imagine a world without it. Save for those who are involved in athletic activities, or visit parks, or do outdoor labor, where porta-potties provide relief, the "civilized" among us always flush.

Flushing accounts for the majority of water usage in the West. Furthermore, since virtually nobody uses grey water, flushing uses clean, potable water that is brought in, filtered and treated at great cost. Dams are built, ecosystems destroyed, salmon go extinct, rivers are polluted so we can flush in the privacy and warmth of our own homes.

Modern toilets do not solve the instantaneous smell problem. So the bathroom needs ventilation and since few bathrooms are sealed off, the bathroom becomes a major source of heat loss or heat intrusion for the house. That little room not only wastes vast quantities of good water, it also wastes tons of air conditioning and heating. It has a huge carbon footprint.

Houses used to have one bathroom. They also used to have five or more residents. All that was not a major problem "back then." Now houses have on average 2.1 residents and few of those can imagine living with just one bathroom. "Oh dear, that must be hell." So here comes duplication.

The consumer society loves duplicates and triplicates. Now you need to buy three or more toilets, three or more fans, three or more sinks, mirrors, lights, etc. Everyone living in the house has their own bathroom, and it doesn't stop there. Any decent home has a few extra rooms just in case. And those rooms too have bathrooms. What about the guests dear, surely they can't use our bathroom?

A "normal" sized home now has two or three bathrooms. Some have five or six. More heat intrusion or heat loss. More pipes, more vents, more copper wire. More air freshener spray cans. More odor-repellant boxes, dried leaves, and other contraptions. More toilet brushes, light bulbs, mirrors, cabinets, toilet paper stands, garbage cans, soap dishes, soap, etc.

Where do all these consumables and waste products end up? A large part goes to sewage treatment plants. More energy usage to "treat" something that would make excellent fertilizer. But who in their right mind would go there? One can buy nice clean fertilizer from Home Depot. White pellets in paper bags to drop on the lawn.