Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum

General => Chatter => Topic started by: GedsJeep on May 26, 2015, 10:19:37 AM

Title: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 26, 2015, 10:19:37 AM
I have just been to the toilet in McDonalds where I saw a sign which says "this waterless urinal saves 100000 litres of water per year"

And I'm thinking....no it doesn't...

Or is my understanding of the water cycle seriously flawed?
Title: Re: water..
Post by: therecklessengineer on May 26, 2015, 11:06:28 AM
On what grounds do you dispute their claim?
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Jamesrl on May 26, 2015, 01:35:54 PM
I have just been to the toilet in McDonalds where I saw a sign which says "this waterless urinal saves 100000 litres of water per year"

And I'm thinking....no it doesn't...

Or is my understanding of the water cycle seriously flawed?

About as accurate as their clame to run ALL their trucks on their own recycled veg oil.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: dgs on May 26, 2015, 01:43:36 PM
I wonder if they meant ALL the waterless toilets in ALL Mcdonalds All over the world.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Julian on May 26, 2015, 02:31:13 PM
I don't see the need to save water.

There's no shortage, there's been the same amount of water on the planet for the last 3 million years.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Rossey on May 26, 2015, 02:57:13 PM
I have just been to the toilet in McDonalds where I saw a sign which says "this waterless urinal saves 100000 litres of water per year"

And I'm thinking....no it doesn't...

Or is my understanding of the water cycle seriously flawed?

About as accurate as their clame to run ALL their trucks on their own recycled veg oil.

I have been to one of there contractors depots.

there was at least a 10,000 litre veg oil tank.

the fuel pumps on the site did have biodiesel written on them, but none of the trucks smelt of bio.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 26, 2015, 05:18:08 PM
On what grounds do you dispute their claim?

The saving water bit.

Like Julian says. Water doesn't get wasted....

Wastage is a myth created by water companies so they have less work to do for the same money....

Water doesn't just vanish
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Julian on May 26, 2015, 05:53:59 PM
On what grounds do you dispute their claim?

Water doesn't just vanish

Ah, but it does ... from water company pipes.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/08/water-companies-leaks-target-drought (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/08/water-companies-leaks-target-drought) ... water wasted due to leaking pipes ... the figures are astounding, but more than likely grossly underestimated as they are issued by the water companies themselves.  Total for all the water companies ... 3,245,000,000 ltrs per day, and they want me to pay extra to use a garden hose!

I wonder what would happen if the gas supply network leaked at the same rate?
Title: Re: water..
Post by: greasemonkey on May 26, 2015, 06:27:58 PM
The bit the water companys don't tell you is, in some parts of the UK, bore hole water is mixed six parts to one part reservoir water, to get the chemical pollutants lower than the legal maximum. I have heard that in some places, it gets so bad, that they cannot put res water into the pipes. It's all bore water, or tankered in.

This is expensive, not to mention getting solids out, from chronic soil erosion.
It's also massively destructive to the environment. This is fossil water, that hasn't been moved for millennia, in some places.

Welsh Water, a non profit company, has bashed it heads against the wall for so long, trying to get the various different agencys to screw the Farmers necks in, without success, that it has now sent a letter to farms in the Wye valley, begging Farmers to use chemicals responsibly.
It won't work.

Not only are you paying the water companys to clean the water, your paying the Farmers, to pollute the water, too.......... 
Title: Re: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 26, 2015, 06:43:08 PM
But the Water isn't wasted....

It is impossible to waste water!

There is no such thing as wasted water!
Title: Re: water..
Post by: willbuild on May 26, 2015, 06:46:11 PM
In the province of jaen in Andalusia it's hard to find sink a bore hole and find clear water, looks like the water from my water washes.
It's the decades of farmers spraying the olive trees with sulphur.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: greasemonkey on May 26, 2015, 07:01:38 PM
But the Water isn't wasted....

It is impossible to waste water!

There is no such thing as wasted water!

It's the effort that is put into the supply chain that is wasted.

Water co's may have a bad rep, but the spend a considerable sum on leak detection and repair. The only ones I have worked with have been Welsh Water and Yorkshire water, but I don't doubt others are the same. Every night, peeps are creeping about, listening for leaks on stop taps.
There are monitoring systems.
Every morning, above average consumption is flagged up on the computers.

Then there are the real nutters who do 36 hour shifts, to repair burst mains. They don't come cheap. I'm glad I don't do that anymore.

Even 8 years ago, when I was on the gangs, there had been over a million miles of new water main replaced. That's existing main replaced with new, not new mains. I don't know how many miles it is now, nor how many miles there actually are.

Having said all that, Mac Poisons claims are probably just a PR exercise. If peeps want to save toilet water, piddle against a tree......
Title: Re: water..
Post by: therecklessengineer on May 26, 2015, 07:14:02 PM
The saving water bit.

Like Julian says. Water doesn't get wasted....

Wastage is a myth created by water companies so they have less work to do for the same money....

Water doesn't just vanish

I see. Your logic is sound, and I agree with you.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 27, 2015, 08:49:48 AM
Thanks. I knew I wasn't losing it...

In the same vein....

Can you actually destroy water?

Eg, if you boil it, it turns to steam, 're condenses and rejoins the water cycle.

So can you destroy it?
Title: Re: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 27, 2015, 08:50:46 AM
But the Water isn't wasted....

It is impossible to waste water!

There is no such thing as wasted water!

It's the effort that is put into the supply chain that is wasted.

Water co's may have a bad rep, but the spend a considerable sum on leak detection and repair. The only ones I have worked with have been Welsh Water and Yorkshire water, but I don't doubt others are the same. Every night, peeps are creeping about, listening for leaks on stop taps.
There are monitoring systems.
Every morning, above average consumption is flagged up on the computers.



But the water still isn't wasted. It rejoins the water table.

Title: Re: water..
Post by: therecklessengineer on May 27, 2015, 09:12:01 AM
So can you destroy it?

Yes, by electrolysis.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Twenty4Seven on May 27, 2015, 10:09:12 AM
So can you destroy it?

Yes, by electrolysis.

.... and any number of chemical reactions. In terms of the global amount of water though, this is a drop in the ocean (haha). What about the water that reaches the earth from space in the form of meteorites etc?
Title: Re: water..
Post by: Julian on May 27, 2015, 05:50:08 PM
What about the water that reaches the earth from space in the form of meteorites etc?

Blimey ... soon we'll have too much.
Title: Re: water..
Post by: GedsJeep on May 27, 2015, 05:59:49 PM
No doubt someone will try to send us a bill