POLITICS

Why Italian Toilets Get Better Mileage 

Another American gallon-guzzler under ---

conceived and designed by Peter Shire

What kind of toilet will our grandchildren use? Within 
a few years the porcelain American Standard that uses 
five gallons of fresh water every time the user jerks 
the handle will seem as outmoded a curiosity as a Chrysler 
Imperial. Planners of the near-future will certainly find 
some better use for fresh water than contaminating it and 
flushing it out to sea; and will turn, in the process of 
elimination, to some variation of the toilet presently in 
use by most urban Italians -- a relatively waterless toilet 
that, when activated, forces about three quarts of water at 
high pressure through the bowl, down around the s-trap 
underneath, and away. Mass American acceptance, however, 
of toilets Italian-style depends on a major change in the 
way Americans look at their doodies; for the high pressure- 
low volume Italian water rush is often not enough to rid the 
bowl of the evidence. Even though the product tends to 
disappear into the abyss, the skid-marks the logs make across 
the *toiletta* often graphically remain. It's at that point 
that the fastidious Italian reaches for his trusty *spazzolino*, 
a black plastic or bake-lite brush with white rubber bristles, 
and scrub out the remains. Will Americans be able to overcome 
their horror of their waste and get in there and touch it? 
Maybe when it comes down to that versus no fresh water 
supply. In the meantime, Americans will continue to flush 
without looking and Italians will continue to scrub, scrub 
away.