An article in The Times, “EU’s ideal standard for lavatory flushing,” caught out eyes — the English phrase, a favorite of ours — “bog standard” (synonymous with ordinary) — is now being extended all across the EU.
Lavatory flushes will be standardized all across the EU. Standard “Eurofluses,” according to the most recent draft, are to be five liters for toilets for full flushes, three liters for half flushes, one liter for urinals.
This comes after three years of research costing €89,300. The results are now in a 122-page report (likely to be interesting reading for dull men).
U.K.’s environmentalists will not be pleased with the report:
• The U.S. is the leading EU flusher — 1,125 million cubic meters of water used by domestic lavatories in 2010.
• Second is Italy — 1,074 meters
• Third is Germany — 1,021 meters
percentages of national water supply used for flushing:
• Luxembourg was the highest with 33%
• U.K. second with 25%
• Finland lowest with 14%
Toilet count, both private and public toilets, for the top five countries with toilets:
• Germany 77 million
• Spain 49.2 million
• Italy 46.5 million
• Britain 45.3 million
• France 42 million
The country with the most urinals in Europe is Italy — 8.2 million urinals.
