Urinating In The Shower For The Environment?

If you are one of those unusual people that follows higher education (like me), there are two places to go for news: The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Last week, Inside Higher Ed featured this amazing story: Is Urinating in the Shower the Next Big Green Idea? I was not expecting this in my higher education coverage. Anyway, here's the news:

Students at the University of East Anglia are encouraging their fellow students to skip their first trip to the toilet in the morning and to, instead, urinate in the shower, the BBC reported. The idea is to save water by avoiding the first flush of the day, and student materials (see below) suggest significant water savings could be achieved. Students are being encouraged to pledge their participation with the #gowiththeflow hashtag on Twitter.

Get these students a Nobel Prize! Unfortunately, not everyone is on board with this idea. The comments section, likely consisting of academic elite or at the very least better educated folks than your typical message board crowd, is incredible. Skip the California politics stuff and you get some wonderful opinions about urinating outside and washing yourself in the toilet to help the environment.

Personally, I think we need further study about this. Thoughts?