In the past year, the cruise industry has had a chance to reflect on their business operations and determine what steps they can take to get the sector roaring back after the pandemic as well as steps they can take to reduce operating costs. As you can imagine, after a very tough 2020, both are noticeably significant concerns for the cruise industry.

One of the items getting much more scrutiny is switching out the old, flush-valve, water-using urinals with no-water or waterless urinals. When looking into this, one of the first things cruise owners/operators realize is that, in most cases, a waterless urinal has virtually the same "wall print" as a traditional urinal. This means if water-using urinals are swapped out with no-water urinals, there are few if any remodeling or construction issues to grapple with.

So, that makes installing waterless urinals easier to consider, but what are some of the actual benefits of installing waterless urinals? Here is what some cruise ship owners/operators are discovering:

·       Urinals, just like toilets, have overflows. The flush handle, manual or automatic, becomes stuck and water keeps rushing out. This is not an issue with waterless urinals.

·       Most ships use a combination of fresh, treated, and saltwater while out at sea. Saltwater is often used for urinals and toilets. The problem is that this can cause hard encrustations in the drain line. Repairing this can be costly, and should problems develop while at sea, these urinals must be closed for use, something no owner/operator wants to do.

·       Urinals are designed to last for years. However, the part that does not last and often needs repair is the flush valve. When heavily used, they may need to be replaced every two to five years. Furthermore, they frequently need to be repaired. This can get costly. There are no flush handles or any mechanical parts on waterless urinals. So, this cost is eliminated.

·       By law, ships must treat water before they can deposit it in the ocean. With waterless systems, there is less water to pump out because no water is used in the system's operation. This helps reduce wastewater storage needs and, along with it, sewage disposal costs.

·       Waterless urinals tend to be more hygienic than water-using urinals, keeping restrooms cleaner and helping to eliminate odors. This is due to a few reasons, but most importantly, when a flush urinal is flushed, it releases bacteria-filled droplets into the restroom, especially on floors. This can cause odors, and because of the humid conditions in some vessels, this can accelerate odor problems.  Another point related to this is that urine is essentially odor-free, but when it mixes with water, odors can develop.  This is not an issue with waterless urinals. They stay dry, helping to keep restrooms odor-free.

·       Weight is a big concern on cruise ships. Anything that can help reduce onboard weight can translate into fuel savings. Some urinals manufactured by Waterless Co., Inc. weigh as little as ten pounds. By comparison, a conventional water-using urinal can weigh more than 60 pounds. If a cruise ship has 200 urinals onboard, that means owners/operators can cut onboard weight by about 10,000 pounds – if not more - by going waterless.
And let’s not forget, the flush valves, water supply lines, trap components all add to the weight of a water-using urinal.  This means even more onboard weight will be cut.

·       Finally, restrooms have been going touch-free for years. But now, in a post-COVID world, this trend has been accelerated considerably. With no water urinals, there is nothing to touch. You might say this is true with sensor-controlled urinals. However, those controls still must be touched regularly by housekeepers, and all too often, they do not work. In such cases, the user must manually touch the flush valve.