Sometimes the best way to get people fired up about a cause—be it environmental, political, or anything else—is to get them angry. But instead of trying to piss citizens off, a Brazilian environmental group is trying to get the country’s residents to, well, urinate in the shower.
The group says that if a single household flushed the toilet just one fewer times a day, it would save a whopping 1,157 gallons of water each year. The organization has even come out with a video touting the idea. Urine is sterile, so peeing in the shower is harmless (except if someone has a disease that can be transmitted through their pee, such as hepatitis).
The AP reports:
The spot features cartoon drawings of people from all walks of life – a trapeze artist, a basketball player, even an alien – urinating in the shower.
Narrated by children’s voices, the ad ends with: “Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!”
Watch it here:
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Image: flickr /stevendepolo
August 5th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
[...] From Discover: [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
[...] Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water | Discoblog | Discover Magazine. [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
What happened to “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down”?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
*snickering like Muttley*
Why don’t you delete spam comments?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Well, the ad is great, but are they seriously not worried about communal showers in schools, gyms, etc?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Elissa,
The article references that those with diseases spreadable through urine shouldn’t do this. Also, whether true or not, shower wee-ing has long been a folk remedy to stop athlete’s foot, so I personally give a squirt whenever in a communal shower for fungal prophylaxis. Sorry to those who are grossed out, but it’s not at if it’s the last thing I do before getting out.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Communal showers are the big problem. I would wear waders at the gym.
August 5th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Wait only 1157 gallons per year? is this a typo? Even the really low flush toilets are over a gallon each where I live… So only 1000 people flush toilets in brazil?
August 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Hey, it’s all pipes.
August 5th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Aurenia, it’s a savings of 1,157 gallons per household per year… not altogether.
Thanks for reading!
August 5th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
A my bad I skimmed the paragraph, assuming it was Brazil… I wonder how this number would change in the US or Canada, I know Canada is pushing for every house to have low flow, but my landlord still has the giant old ones.
I’m also curious how they factored in the people that already do this, as I’m sure its quite high.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
[...] – TIMEJuly auto sales up from program Distraction of the Day: Brazilians urged to conserve water in a strange way.Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe via the RSS feed, E-mail or Twitter [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Uh, I’m Brazilian and I didn’t know that. My cat seems to be aware though, has been a while, even though she didn’t grasp that the “while showering” part, and just does that anytime she feels like. I wish I could train her to use the toilet. :-/
I’ve heard ir read somewhere that most of the domestic conservation practices are somewhat futile, because the rice production, or maybe agriculture in general, often uses somewhat obsolete irrigation techniques that are not very good regarding optimization of water usage, but may be (a reasonable supposition) cheaper in the end anyway.
Not that I waste water anyway. I simply can’t understand how someone is capable of brushing his or her teeth with the faucet open the entire time, it’s insane.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:09 am
[...] one less time per day saves more than 1,100 gallons of water per year. So the organization has launched a TV ad campaign encouraging Brazilians to avoid a flush by peeing in the shower. The ad shows cartoons of everyone [...]
August 6th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Before the ad they already had a website running where you could vote on whether you pee in the shower or not and also learn the facts of saving water by peeing in the shower:
http://www.xixinobanho.org.br (”xixi no banho” means pee in the shower)
August 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
‘Everyone Pees in the Shower’ is one of the most popular songs performed by the Stanford Fleet Street Singers, the a cappella group with whom I perform. Dude, I had no idea the song could cause a revolution in another country.
Check out this epic melody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-1EgfaotA
August 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
George Costanza would approve.
August 6th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
[...] the comments on the various sites that talk about it. Here are a few sites that discuss it: Discover, Mother Nature News, The Huffington Post, and Tree Hugger – just a drop in the – um, we’ll [...]
August 6th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
[...] Save water by peeing in the shower! Come on, even King Kong is doing it.. although he’s sorta peeing on New York.. eww… Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments Cyrusse Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post ) [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
[...] A Brazilian environmental group is trying to get its residents to save water by peeing in the shower. [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I always pee on the lawn as the nitrogen is an excellent fertilizer.
I suggest councils should go around putting up signs saying ‘Please piss on the grass.’
August 7th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
[...] href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/08/05/brazilians-urged-to-pee-in-the-shower-to-cons…">Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water | Discoblog | [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Terrific!
Now how about REALLY addressing this ridiculous habit of despoiling our precious drinking water with human waste and begin the revolution in composting toilets.
I have one and it saves 60,000 litres a year, is low maintenance and provides terrific, totally innocuous garden compost once it’s broken down.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:28 am
[...] Are they ready to take the next step? Save water and money the Brazilian way – pee in the shower Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water | Discoblog | Discover Magazine __________________ MyFFXI|BGwiki|FFXI AH [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I’m not convinced that leaving the hot shower water running while I evacuate my bladder is going to be a win over flushing my low-flow toilet. Particularly if I close the lid and leave it ’til next time.
Composting toilets are a great idea where possible, as are toilets that reuse household grey water. Part of the problem is that we fill our toilets with potable water, into which we then plop excrement.
August 12th, 2009 at 6:54 am
[...] in the Shower It saves the rainforest…? Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water | Discoblog | Discover Magazine Lul. [...]
August 14th, 2009 at 8:38 am
[...] Posted by overactor What campaign? Have you clicked the link in the first post? Here. It’s a Brazilian campaign to save water… YouTube – SOS Mata Atlântica (Xixi no [...]
August 14th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] Posted by Almoglo Have you clicked the link in the first post? Here. It’s a Brazilian campaign to save water… YouTube – SOS Mata Atlântica (Xixi no Banho) The [...]
August 19th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
SOS Planeta: Xixi no Banho
Xixi no Banho – Eu não sei exatamente como começou isto, mas ganhou fama quando artistas da TV divulgaram sua nova forma de consumir menos água.
…
August 21st, 2009 at 11:48 am
[...] Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water | Discoblog | Discover Magazine – The video for this ad campaign is hilarious. [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 10:46 am
[...] Source [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 3:25 am
peeing in the shower is not bad at all urine is 95%water geez urine dont realy have disease i wouldnt poop in the shower inless i had no toilet i would poop outside in my backyard even my dog does it hell it ends eing converted in the soil anyway
September 4th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
[...] I don’t know how much water this would save considering you have to stand there with the water running. Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
[...] need to get in touch with our au natural side and either use the great outdoors as our toilet or, as the Brazilians do it, pee in the shower. Don’t worry, urine is [...]
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 am
[...] Brazilians encouraged to pee in the shower [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
[...] recently read an old news about Brazil where a local green organisation promoted peeing in the shower. Well I think this is a [...]
December 11th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Instead of peeing in the shower how about reducing your number of flushes by not using the toilet as a trash can. Save 1.5 to 3 gallons of water each time you place sanitary products and applicators, condoms, dental floss, personal wipes, Q-tips, etc. in the trash instead of flushing. Save trees by not using wads of toilet paper to enclose these items, but use biodegradable, personal-size disposal bags to keep the bathroom sanitary. Check out this new product at http://www.scensiblesource.com and get free samples.
December 31st, 2009 at 10:11 am
I also strongly recommend saving water by reusing it when bathing, i.e., put a stopper on the drain when someone showers (and does not urinate in it) use that water to bathe in. This is really good to shave in, with or without a hand mirror to see your face when cutting the hair.
December 31st, 2009 at 11:31 am
Have you Idiot Liberals lost your minds? First of all there is no global warming. In fact it even snowed in africa last year which hasn’t happened in a long time in some parts of it which means there’s actually a global cooling. Next, im not going to pee in the shower to save water when its disgusting and second of all there is plenty of water. It covers over 75% of the earth you Idiots and that water can be purified to drink or bathe plus the rains replenish water anyways its an ecological natural replenishing system so its not going to run out you morons. Lastly you need to stop listening to your crazy liberal teachers who believe more about saving chickens and polar bears than they do about killing your own baby in an abortion. That should tell you they have everything backwards and should be called regressive instead of progressive. Please stop drinking the coolaid people and be normal you freaks.
December 31st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I’m so into going green! Okay Shadow. Get a grip. Peeing in the shower isn’t bad. Pee is like 75% water anyway! Geez it’s not bad. Also becoming a vegetarian or vegan can help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being put into the air. Eating dairy, eggs, meat and fish is unnatural and unnecessary. Check out my website at http://www.vegan411.webs.com for more info. Thanks!
December 31st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Like Crystal said, “If its yellow, let it mellow, if its brown flush it down.”
January 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Shadow, please refrain from using words like “freak” or “idiot” as this website is mainly focused on serious discussions, not on insulting people who have different beliefs.
January 8th, 2010 at 4:24 am
If these people knew how long MY showers are, they wouldn’t bother asking!
Honestly, when people whine about conserving a single flush of water from a families home, I just want to shove a nail in my foot. ONE GOLF COURSE in Palm Springs uses more water IN ONE NIGHT than a family of 4 in a WHOLE YEAR. One… night. ONE.
Businesses are where the waste happens enmass. Until they clean up their act, I think I’ll use the toilet like a normal person. I already stopped watering my yard. Doesn’t do any good in Southern California anyway.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:10 am
[...] Discover Magazine is covering this hot topic–spurred by a video from Brazil that cheers: Pee in the shower, and [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
I find it very unfortunate that many people are not even aware of the water shortage we face, not only here in the U.S., but all over the world. Unless they are environmentally conscious, no one I talk to, old or young, is aware of the seriousness of the problem. I think we need an agressive education campaign, to educate people at work, at school… , and anywhere and anyhow we can think of by any means, new or old.
It is then that I think it will be easy to ask them to participate in the expense, conservation, and support.