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Australia Proposes Tax On Toilet Flushes

Posted by samzenpus on from the 2-pound-potty dept.

Logical Zebra writes "Australia, in an effort to curb water use during a drought, is proposing a new tax. Households would be charged per flush of the toilet. 'Some people may go as far as not flushing their toilet as often because the less sewage you produce, the less sewage rate you pay,' says Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young. This policy doesn't yet have a name, but I would like to propose "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."

5 comments

  1. You'll be... by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 1

    ... flushing your money down the toilet!

    * BADDUM CHA *

  2. Lemon Trees by Techman83 · · Score: 1

    Great Places to pee, with the added bonus of tastier lemons! A friend of mine who was a bit of a drinker and also had regular friday/saturday night booze ups with heaps of people around had a lemon tree and being that he only had one toilet, that lemon tree did get a regular watering of yellow water. It was one of the only plants in his garden that flourished and I reckon the best darn lemons I've ever tasted!

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i cat
    Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
  3. Depends on How Much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Excellent, I can see many ways to get around this:

    1. It's Australia, just whiz in the "backyard". Works for other functions too.

    2. Hold it in.

    3. Depends

  4. New organic beverage company in the making... by Slacksoft · · Score: 1

    What they could do is create a new beverage company like what is starting in India. An upstart beverage company in India is using cow urine as the key ingredient in their new beverage said to be in direct competition with foreign cola companies like Coke and etc. Ideally we could see a new market spring up with 'organic' label for human pee power drinks. People would buy it because it's organic, and if i've learned anything from the "everybody poops" books it's that everyone also pees. I can see limitless potential. We could get astronaut endorsements because they'd be our 'celebrity' mascots, and of course a target customer since they drink pee in space. I can see the logo being a recycle sign with a person shadowed in the background. So it's making the direction from the top to bottom, and back up again! It would be glorious, and there are more of us than cows so i can see a unlimited resource with a vast marketability. ... I've had too many Bawls drinks today, back to the cube.

  5. How...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How on earth would you enforce this? Attach tamper-resistant microswitches to the toilet tank drain flappers? If my toilet tank drain flapper cracks and needs to be replaced, can I get one at Home Depot for $4, or do I need to call the city to come replace the microswitch too?

    If anything should be banned, it's irrigation. Not only is it wasteful; it's freaking annoying. I get off work at 0100, and I don't look forward to walking down a sprinkler-soaked sidewalk. Oh--and the sprinklers are irrigating a field of woodchips, which don't even need watering. Employees wind up kicking the sprinkler heads, so they just drench small spots on the ground.