WASHROOM HYGIENE


Ireland’s sustainable washrooms


Liam Smith from Tork manufacturer Essity looks at some of the ways in which Ireland’s washrooms are becoming more sustainable, and ponders what more can be done to make toilets more environmentally-friendly.


A ‘Think Before You Flush’ campaign was initiated in Askeaton, County Limerick, this autumn. Its aim was to highlight the impact that certain items can have on rivers, beaches, waterways, and oceans when they are flushed away down the toilet.


A number of hotels, pubs, garden centres, and restaurants in Askeaton rushed to join the campaign, which is designed to re-educate locals and visitors in proper flushing behaviour and promote a better environment.


This is just one of the ways in which Ireland is currently seeking to improve the sustainability of its toilets. Another example is the opening of two new eco-toilets at the Seapoint Beach car park in Termonfeckin.


These facilities – which are wheelchair accessible – use a combination of sunlight and wind to dry human waste. The forced airflow in the system is said to reduce the volume of waste by up to 90% while also killing pathogens and promoting the growth of aerobic bacteria.


Dublin’s Croke Park stadium is also looking at ways of improving the sustainability of its washrooms. For example, the arena is considering collecting drainage water from its pitch and rainwater from its rooves, and using this resource to flush its toilets.


The willingness of Ireland’s venues to improve their sustainability credentials is impressive, and washrooms are a good place to start because these facilities are used by all of us. They also consume large volumes of water and paper along with energy for heating, lighting – and sometimes even for hand drying.


There are plenty of ways in which the use of water can be reduced in public facilities, many of which are already being widely implemented. For example, waterless urinals are increasingly being installed in the Gents’ because these have obvious water-saving advantages, while also requiring less maintenance than traditional urinals and eliminating the issue of clogged drains.


Dual flush systems that allow visitors to choose between a half or a full-flush option are also becoming the norm in many public washrooms. Contemporary taps are also often designed to turn on and off automatically to prevent washroom users from leaving them running.


Controlling the amount of waste we produce is another important environmental issue – and a great deal of paper tends to be used in the washroom in the form of toilet tissue and hand towels. Many of today’s toilet paper and hand


10 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING IRELAND


towel dispensers are engineered specifically to prevent over-consumption and reduce waste. For example, the Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser gives out sheets of paper one at a time so that washroom visitors are discouraged from taking out more than they need.


Old-style C-fold towel dispensers tend to create a great deal of waste because it’s relatively difficult to take only one towel out from the unit. This results in each user removing clumps of towels at a time, and the unwanted towels are then discarded.


Conventional toilet rolls can also lead to paper waste because the rolls are unprotected before use and will quickly become unusable if they get wet or dirty. Washroom visitors may also be tempted to take more paper than they need from the roll, leading to overconsumption.


The Tork SmartOne toilet paper dispenser reduces consumption by up to 40% because it automatically limits the amount of toilet paper that people take out. The paper is also protected before use to prevent product contamination or spoilage. The Tork Coreless Toilet Roll system also offers sustainability benefits because the compact roll lasts up to five times longer than conventional toilet rolls, while resulting in 88% less waste.


A new service from Essity that's designed to dramatically enhance the sustainability of paper hand towels is now available in several European markets. Tork PaperCircle is the world’s first recycling service for paper towels, enabling businesses to reduce their environmental footprint by 40% compared with current waste handling options.


Customers signing up for Tork PaperCircle have their used washroom hand towels picked up from their business premises and taken to local recycling centres where they’re turned into other tissue products. AstraZeneca – the multinational pharmaceutical company behind one of the world’s most widely-administered COVID-19 vaccines – is among the UK’s first Tork PaperCircle customers. In November 2021 the service was showcased at COP26, the leading global climate change summit held at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus.


People are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to adopt sustainable practices at home, at work – and in the washroom. This emerged in a survey of 2000 office workers carried out by Essity in 2021.


Eco-unfriendly practices in the washroom that were highlighted by staff members included the use of electric


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