Taking a leak may soon involve far less trickle of precious water, that is. A California-based company has developed the waterless urinal, saving facilities thousands of gallons of water per year. James Krug of Falcon water-free technologies, says that Californians have plenty of experience of water shortage.
不久的未来，小便将不再会浪费大量水资源。一家位于加利福尼亚的公司发明了一种无水便池，这种便池每年都能节约成千上万加仑水资源。James Krug，无水设备研究者表示加利福尼亚州经常要面对水资源短缺的情况。
"There are 55 million urinals approximately around the world. And if you multiple that by the 40,000 gallons, also that they are using for water, there is an opportunity to save billions and billions of gallons of water. And the idea of just flushing fresh water down a urinal is seemed to make no sense to me."
“全世界大概有5千5百万小便池。如果你再乘以每个小便池浪费的4万加仑水资源，将会是多少？如果把这些有水都换成无水小便池的话，则会节约十亿百亿加仑的水。在我看来用水冲刷小便池可不是个好主意。”
A traditional urinal uses water to flush urine. But the folks at Falcon believed that because urine is already liquid, gravity, not water is needed for flushing. They developed a plastic cartridge filled with biodegradable liquid sealant that traps gases and odors as urine flows through it. One $40 cartridge lasts about 7,000 uses, and an average facility only needs 2 to 3 replacement cartridges a year. But surely no water means more bad smells and germs.
传统的小便池用水冲走附着的池壁的尿液。但Falcon公司的人认为，既然尿液已经是液体了，加上地心引力，那就无需其他的水来冲刷了。他们发明了一个塑料筒，内置密封的生物降解剂，只有当尿液流经的时候吸收异味。40美元一筒，可用7千次。一般的公共卫生间一年只需要更换2到3次即可。而且，无水也意味着无气味和无菌。
"The answer is actually much more hygienic. We know that we need water for life. So when you have a dryer system, when you have less water moisture in the urinal, you do not have the growth of bacteria."
“原因显而易见。我们知道，正常生活都需要水，而用了这套无水系统，小便器中的湿度会相应降低，也就不容易滋生细菌了。”
The famous Hollywood Bowl Concert Venue has installed waterless urinals, saving them about 3 million gallons of water a year, according to COO, Avon Manoucher.
雅芳首席运营官Manoucher透露，好莱坞的名人Bowl Concert Venue已经安装了这套无水系统，这套系统为他们每年节约了3百万加仑的水，
"I think it's important as a major venue and an icon in the city that we helped take the lead, and are trying to do things that are good for the environment and forward-looking, and for water-free technology it's just one aspect of our program."
“我认为我们应该在城市的主干道和繁华地段应用这种新技术，因为这对于环境有益，具有前瞻性，而这只是我们要做的一部分工作。”
Krug's company has installed 200,000 urinals worldwide, 100,000 in the US alone, insuring that this is one idea that won't be flushed down the toilet.
Krug的公司在全世界已经安装了20万无水便池，仅美国就达到了10万部。看来无水便池的想法不会很快过时。
Tara Cleary, Reuters.
Tara Cleary，路透社报道。biodegradable adj. 生物所能分解的，能进行生物降解的sealant n. 【医学】密封剂注：本篇文章英文来自普特论坛，译文属秀哈英语原创，未经允许，请勿转载。
