By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A few years ago, when the Taj Mahal underwent renovations, the designers opted to install waterless urinals instead of running new plumbing through the historic decorative tiles.
At a weather station 10,000 feet up in the Austrian Alps, employees have to melt ice or haul water up via gondola, so they had a waterless urinal installed.
Both of these urinals are products of Falcon Waterfree Technologies, a California-based company with 14 offices worldwide, including the United States and Canadian headquarters at 751 Kenmoor, Grand Rapids and an assembly plant off Patterson SE.
Although the waterless urinal is the sole product, the company has logged nearly 30 percent growth every year since it was founded in 2000.
Customers range from commercial real estate developments to schools and arenas; anywhere that has large crowds. And company execs say the product saves more than water. It also reduces construction costs because it doesn’t require water pipes, and it slashes maintenance costs because it doesn’t require a flush valve that wears out. The waterless urinals also require less energy.
“Water to municipalities is one of the most energy intensive endeavors,” says Randy Goble, spokesman for Falcon Waterfree Technologies. points “In places like Grand Rapids, water comes from a long ways away and it takes a lot of energy to pump it here. When it goes down the drains as sewage, it goes to a wastewater treatment facility and requires energy to treat it.”
He adds that every billion gallons of water conserved reduces carbon emissions by 9,000 tons a year due to the reduction in energy.
“You usually think about reducing greenhouse gases with a complex technology,” he says, “and a waterless urinal is such a simple solution with a huge benefit.”
Source: Randy Goble, Falcon Waterfree Technologies
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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