Dual Flush Toilets in Hotels (60% savings on water bill)

If you've ever been to Europe, you've seen the toilets that have two buttons for flushing: one for a 0.8-gallon flush for liquid waste and another for a 1.6-gallon release of water for--ahem--solids.

A recent New York Times article, "Will Americans Accept Greener Hotel Rooms?" asks why so few American hotels have adopted the dual-flush toilet when such water-salvaging and more eco-friendly loos are standard in hotel rooms around much of the world.

Poor Brian McGuinness, a vice president with Starwood Hotels and Resorts who is responsible for Starwood's eco-friendly Element brand, bears the burden of answering this question on behalf of the American public: Because consumers expressed concern that the dual-flush toilets would not work, the Times quotes him as saying.

It's a toilet. It flushes. End of story. If Europe has been using them for ages, what evidence is there that the water-saving device wouldn't work across the pond?

This logic is even more curious once the Times points out that the Hilton Palacio del Rio in San Antonio saw a 60-percent savings on its water bill after implementing the dual-flush toilets--at first leaving the hotel to wonder if its meter was broken.