Informative and hysterical -- thanks!

Love the proof of why peeing in the toilet is greener.

If one pees in the shower before turning the water on, you don't waste any water at all!

CAUTION: take a shower after you pee in it!

I think peeing in the shower is fine....as long as you are doing other things simultaneously.  Besides, who wants to get out of the shower, go pee, then get back in?  That wastes water.

And you also save on toilet paper...don't forget that!

(And no, we don't flush every time.)

bc

on the subject of toilet flushing in general, a friend of mine collects the shower/tub water that is not yet hot enough to bathe in and uses THAT to flush the toilet (if you pour it in you don't have to use the handle).  

Not sure how this might work with fancier toilets, but it is a great way to use less water.  Just have to have a place to put the bucket between when you collect the water and when you "flush" the toilet.

So much stress around peeing I just might not be able to go with all that math!

I think since I have a low-flow shower and low water usage toilet I'll just pee at my leisure. Comfortable in the knowledge that I've done what I can =)

The bucket water reuse idea from the comment above is entirely too hardcore for me.

After 6 bottles of St. Pauli Girl, I will piss out a window if available.

Does that reduce my carbon footprint?

I've always heard that peeing in the shower reduces your chances of getting foot fungus.

Jan Steinman: I don't know what EcoReality is, but you should probably take a couple of courses before spewing such, well, sewage about wastewater treatment.  

If you released untreated domestic sewage into a waterway in sufficient concentration, that would kill just about any life in that waterway because the carbonaceous and nitrogenous components would create a huge oxygen demand, de-oxygenating and acidifying the waterway.

A well-designed treatment plant, even if it only has secondary treatment, will remove most of the biological oxygen demand using a bioreactor.  In other words, you create conditions where bacteria can eat the carbonaceous food, reducing (but not eliminating) the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) in the wastewater.  

With tertiary (advanced) treatment (which is becoming the law in more and more jurisdictions), you also remove nitrogenous BOD (ammonia and nitrates), dissolved phosphorous, and various other dissolved solids.  You chlorinate the water to disinfect it, but most standards also require dechlorination before the waste is discharged.  I don't know where you get the idea that wastewater effluent is "unable to sustain life", but it's not from knowledge of wastewater treatment processes.

Hazardous wastes in domestic wastewater are still a problem, but that's where environmental engineers like me come in.  With increasing public awareness and producer stewardship programs (which require that producers take responsibility for their products at the end of their use), what people flush today is a lot less harsh than what they flushed ten years ago.  

Industrial wastewater still has a long way to go, but it's also much cleaner than it used to be.  The biggest problem facing waterways (at least in southwestern BC) is agricultural waste.  Factory farms release huge amounts of nitrogenous wastes that leach into groundwater, and from there into waterways, with no treatment except the filtering effect of passing through the aquifer--in the process, often making that aquifer unsuitable for use as a source of drinking water.  

So if you want to throw the guilt somewhere, don't attack municipal wastewater treatment plants, which are actually pretty green; attack factory farmers, and the few industries that illegally dump untreated waste into your drinking water supply.

My aim is poor! What kind of Tilex should I use on the overspray?

Great reply!
Two added points that only a nerd might like.

In Australia the design standard for toilets is dual-flush, that is, 1.6 gallons for solids and 1.0 gallons for liquids. The toilets either have a two-position handle or two buttons. They're staring to appear here in the US and California almost incorporated them as mandatory in new residential construction last year.

Second, urine is sterile until it gets out of your body, unless you have a UTI.

Third, (did I say two?) this might be a good idea for a graduate term project, but do people who pee in the shower actually shower for a longer period of time?

I know in my older house the shower water goes down a seperate pipe, straight out to the back from the field where it runs out about 150 feet from the nearest stream. The toilets go to a regular leach field/septic system.

So I'm not sure if it's the best idea at least here to be pissing in the shower, where the water isn't getting any treatment before being discharged back into the environment.

I'm sure this is different in houses build after the mid-1950s.

Geobeck, I believe Jan was stating the same thing you were - that wastewater treatment removes the nutients - not that it removes all "life giving qualities" of the water before discharge.  

In addition, the point she was making was that we need to abandon the water-carried waste disposal system we have grown up with.  I know, that means a loss of the conventional jobs for those of us in the sanitary engineering/sciences, but I believe she is correct.  One of the most environmentally damaging inventions was that of indoor plumbing dependent upon water carried wastes.  If we handle the solids as solids (composting toilets are one solution), we can even add the small amount of piss, just to keep the pile moist.  The same goes for food wastes - why do we need garbage disposals, which take valuable byproducts and turn them into a slurry that then needs biological treatment.  Compost those wastes also.  This could make our grey water (shower/bath, sink, etc.) recyclable in the home environment, or in concentrated cities, in distributed, minimal waste treatment plants, that could recycle onto parks, playgrounds, greenbelts, etc.

I have an alternative...

I use the EMPTY 1 gallon bottles I get from using Crystal Geyser drinking water (99¢ at the 99¢ONLY STOREs). They have handy WIDE MOUTH openings for those of us older men who are aim-challenged.

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE URINE?
I pour it into GOPHER & GROUND SQUIRREL tunnels.

They hate it. Good. I don't want to KILL the things (well sometimes I do). I want them to MOVE over to my neighbor's property instead of destroying my plantings. That and chicken wire cages have brought me to thinking I'm winning the war.

But, when I encounter NEW tunneling or a plant with no roots, I feel like George W. must with his "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" war in Iraq. But for me, WITHDRAWL isn't an option.

Let us not forget,

If it is yellow, let it mellow,
If it is brown, then flush it down.

Peeing in the shower is great, and at least for me it has gotten rid of some sort of fungus that was on my foot. Maybe the fungus was supposed to die about the same time I gave it the golden shower treatment, but hey it was cheaper than buying some sort of crazy scientist fungus killer in a shiny plastic chemical leaching 6th grader booby enhancing bottle.

Y'all at Grist rock! Pee on Wayne! Pee on Garth!

"Jan Steinman: I don't know what EcoReality is, but you should probably take a couple of courses before spewing such, well, sewage about wastewater treatment."

Well, isn't it pleasant to begin a lecture with a personal attack! That's sure to win people over to your side. I've taken plenty of courses, thank you.

"If you released untreated domestic sewage into a waterway..."

In typical ad-hom style, you're "already listening" to something I never said. Go read it again, please.

"So if you want to throw the guilt somewhere, don't attack municipal wastewater treatment plants..."

Boy, you sure read a different article than the one I wrote!

I'm not at all "attacking municipal wastewater treatment plants." I'm attacking a way of life in which "waste" is "sent away" to be dealt with "elsewhere." If you choose to feel "guilty" about that -- well, if the shoe fits, wear it! :-)

I can understand that having a degree in ecology might seem threatening to a waste engineer. Good! Because in the "couple [dozen] courses" I've taken, I learned that there is no waste in nature. We fail to follow that lead to our own peril.

But no matter. When the natural gas and the phosphate mines run out, we'll have no choice, and will be forced to "close the loop" -- or starve.