Water-saving toilets in the UK are wasting around 400 million litres every day. Up to 8% of dual flush toilets, which are designed to save water, could in fact be leaking.
About 400 million litres of water are estimated to leak from UK toilets every day, according to a report from the BBC. The daily loss is enough to supply 2.8 million people, which equates to the populations of Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Bristol combined.
Much of the wastage can be blamed on dual-flush toilets due to their leaky mechanisms and confusing buttons. Dual-flush toilets allow the option of a small or a large flush, says the BBC, highlighting that water-saving organisation Waterwise estimates that between 5% and 8% of toilets are leaking and most of these are dual flush.
Andrew Tucker, water efficiency manager at Thames Water, told the BBC: “Because we’ve got so many [loos] that continuously flow all through the day, collectively that water loss is now exceeding the amount of water they should be saving nationally.
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