Restaurants Go Touchless

A February survey in a leading trade magazine for the restaurant industry reports that most of their readers plan to update their establishments to be more touchless. Furthermore, of those responding, more than a quarter report they plan to install new fixtures in their restrooms, selecting only those fixtures that operate without touching.

This, of course, is all the result of COVID.  As the restaurant industry around the country begins to open its doors, owners and managers want their patrons to know they are doing everything possible to protect their health and the health of their staff.

As to the survey, here is more of what was uncovered:

·      Nearly one-third say they will be introducing touchless ordering and payment systems.

·      Menus are also going touchless, so bring your phone. More than 20 percent say QR codes will replace menus this year or very shortly. 

·      Touchless doors and entryways are also being introduced by more than twenty percent of those surveyed.

This is just the beginning. We can expect even more changes in the future as this country begins to pull out of the pandemic.  For instance, one Florida restaurant has hired "Peanut" to wait tables. Peanut is a restaurant robot.  He welcomes patrons with menus, takes food orders, and delivers food.

RobotsDynamic.com

The restaurant owner said he decided to hire Peanut because so many of his pre-pandemic staff have left his area of the country, are no longer interested in being waiters, or because patrons prefer not having close contact with a waiter. Furthermore, many waiters are concerned about serving patrons in a post-COVID era.

"Whatever the reason, Peanut is taking their place, and most of our patrons seem to be happy with him," says the restaurant owner. "He's even getting tips."

Other restaurants, including national chains like Chick-fil-A, are also hiring robotic waiters that can handle many of the tasks of restaurant help.   According to one manager, who asked to remain anonymous, "they [the robots] can't get fevers and don't cough on food. They are relentlessly cheerful, never pushy, and the kitchen staff says they are easy to work with."

We also mentioned earlier that many restaurants around the country are rethinking their restrooms.  Many are replacing traditional fixtures with auto-sensors that release water or flush toilets when needed to eliminate touching.  These sensor-operated units have been replacing manual devices for several years; however, due to COVID, the pace of installing these devices has undeniably increased.

With urinals, however, it is another matter. Many bars and restaurants report that when manual flush mechanisms are installed on urinals, they tend to get vandalized.  The same is true when sensor-controlled flush urinals are installed.

As a result, many restaurant managers and owners are taking a much closer look at waterless urinals.

There are no flush handles on waterless urinals.  Further, there is no need to "touch" a waterless urinal.  In fact, back in the early days when waterless urinals were first installed, signs often were placed above the urinals indicating all you need to do is "use the urinal and then walk away."

But there is another reason waterless urinals are garnering closer interest, which is all about health.  We know that traces of COVID can be found in urine.  If someone is carrying the disease and uses a flush urinal, there is a chance that splatter from the urinal - or the flush of the urinal - will release these pathogens into the air, spreading the disease.

There is less chance of this happening with waterless urinals, and, because they do not have flush handles, they do not need to be touched. With these benefits in mind, restaurant owners are finding waterless urinals to be a much healthier fixture option.

Stopping the Water Scarcity Cycle

Sometimes, when we see people living in more impoverished, more desperate areas of the world, we ask ourselves, “why can’t these people improve their lives?

Further, we often find that children living in some problematic parts of the world stop going to school at a young age. From here, a cycle begins that repeats itself over and over again: children receive minimal formal education, perpetuating a life of poverty.

According to Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist best known for creating “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” there is a particularly good reason for this. In fact, it is easy to understand why this cycle keeps repeating and a lot of it comes down to water, or should we say, the lack of water.

According to Maslow:

Without secure access to clean water, [people] find it harder to focus on things beyond the most basic elements needed for survival. When you are thirsty or hungry, you will become distracted by these deficiencies and will have to satisfy those needs to be productive elsewhere. You can ignore these needs for a while, but you cannot go long without proper hydration.

He also says that many people around the world are faced with challenges that those in more affluent, and more water-rich areas of the world, can’t even fathom.

“Many people [in these poorer areas of the world] are stuck in a fight for survival. The things we require to survive are requirements for a reason. We need certain things like food and water to provide our body with nutrients and keep it functioning properly.”

When we consider what Maslow is saying, it is easier for us to understand why the cycle mentioned earlier continues along with the predicament these people are trying to survive in. But what we may not understand is just how big that predicament is.

Possibly these stats can give us an idea:

• While the numbers can vary depending on sources, they are still bad no matter what the source. Most report that about 1.1 billion people in the world lack regular access to water.

• Nearly three billion people live in areas of the world where water is scarce at least one or more months per year.

• About half the schools worldwide do not have proper access to clean water and sanitation facilities.

• Collectively, around the world, children spend 200 million hours every single day collecting water.

Further, some experts now believe that at the rate we are contaminating freshwater sources, we are looking at a very real chance that by 2025—that’s three years from now—as much as two-thirds of the world’s people will need to grapple with some type of water scarcity, temporarily or permanently. This means that very likely more children may find themselves in this cycle of little education and more poverty.

If there was ever a reason for improving water efficiency and water conservation, it is for this, the children of the world. It’s one reason that Waterless Co., Inc., supports organizations that are trying to improve water-related conditions for the world’s children as well as develop new technologies that help us minimize, if not eliminate, the use of water, helping to address this water scarcity challenge.

Our Secrets to Business Longevity

The life span of businesses in the U.S. keeps declining. In 1958, a publicly traded company had a life span of about 61 years. That’s down to 18 years today.

As to small businesses, they too “lived” longer years ago. But today, the average life expectancy of one of the 31 million small businesses in the United States is about 8.5 years.

So, when we hear about a company such as Waterless Co., Inc., manufacturers of no-water urinals and other restroom products, celebrating its 32nd anniversary, business owners might want to get some insight into how they did it.

According to Klaus Reichardt, CEO and founder of the company, the following made it happen:

Believe in your product or service. Running a business is not for the faint of heart. You must believe in your product or service to get others to believe in it too.

Give it time. It took months of knocking on doors before we got our first major customer. Give a new business a reasonable amount of time to take off.

Know the start-up costs. This varies depending on the type of business but have a good idea how much money it will take to get the company going. And don’t expect profits right away. Typically, profits are two or three years down the road.

Adapt to change. “Due to COVID, a lot of companies had to make fast changes. We’ve learned over the years there are good times and tough times - we’ve seen them all. To handle them, we changed directions fast, re-evaluated our markets, and followed a conservative, lean-and-mean budget.

Listen to your customers. Always view your customers as the gift that keeps on giving. Their feedback on your products and services is what helps improve your offerings, helping the business grow stronger, and more profitable.

Have well-defined values.  Most businesses become a reflection of the owner’s values. If you have strong ethics and solid values, you will attract not only employees with similar values but customers as well.

A Look at the Waterless Urinal Numbers

There are three key reasons to select waterless urinals. These are:

1. Environmental performance. Depending on where they are installed and the type of facility, several sources now say that one waterless urinal can save as much as 35,000 gallons of water per year. In drought-prone areas, this is a significant water saving.

2. Ease of maintenance. In general, waterless urinals are easier to clean and maintain than flush urinals. Here's why. Products are now available for waterless urinals such a Nviroclean that allow cleaning professionals to spray the urinal and then walk away. However, disinfectants and all-purpose cleaners will also work fine. In this case, just spray and wipe. The point is, no scrubbing or brushing is required when cleaning waterless urinals.

3. Cost benefits. We will discuss this in more detail below, but waterless urinals typically cost less to purchase and certainly less to install than conventional water-using urinals. Installation costs are low because waterless urinals only need to be connected to drain plumbing. 

But there is more to cost savings than meets the eye. Water consumption – along with the cost to remove water, typically listed as sewer charges on water utility bills - in a commercial facility can be costly, and it is getting more expensive all the time. This means saving water is one thing, and a great thing at that, but how does this translate into saving money?

Well, a 2015 study conducted in a major high-rise building may have some answers for us. This study compared the water consumption and operating costs of 14 of the building's flush urinals to that of 14 waterless urinals over a four-month period.

Here is what they found. 

Once the no-water urinals were installed, water usage in the building dropped by 14 percent. That amounted to nearly 23,000 gallons. This shows just how much water the water-using urinals were consuming in just four months.

But now, let us look at the dollars and cents. The researchers said that on an annual basis, this would save the property $15,246. 

This corresponds with what a leading Green building association estimates. This association says just one waterless urinal should save a property $2,000 per year if it replaces an "automatically" flushing urinal. An automatically flushing urinal is one with a sensor-controlled flush mechanism.

But let's dig a bit deeper and consider the return on the investment (ROI). While the charges and costs to own a no-water urinal can vary, with a no-water urinal from Waterless Co., Inc., we can say the average price is $300.

The cylinders placed at the bottom of the urinal are very inexpensive using the Waterless system, about $10 each. Let us say we need to replace them twice per year, for a total cost of $20.

The means that a new Waterless urinal will cost a building owner about $320 the first year after installation.

But if the waterless urinal saves the owner $2,000 per year, this means it will pay for itself in just three or four months. When most building owners consider ROI, they often figure in years. For the ROI to be this short is virtually unheard of.

As we mentioned earlier, helping to protect the environment, ease of maintenance and cost savings are the key benefits of waterless urinals. Now you know, the cost savings can be more than you realized.

Water crisis on Oregon-California border

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.

In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system. The agency announced last month that hundreds of irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead.

The entire region is in extreme or exceptional drought, according to federal monitoring reports, and Oregon’s Klamath County is experiencing its driest year in 127 years.

To read more, click here to take you to the FOX News original article.

Waterless Co. Earns National Green Building Certification

"Program developed to provide a uniform, national standard, recognizing
and encouraging home-related green products."

Waterless Co., Inc. has just earned National Green Building Standard (NGBS) Certification from the National Association of Homebuilder’s Home Innovation Research Labs. 

The NGBS is an American Standards Association (ANSI)- approved green building certification program.  It focuses on single-family and multi-family residential buildings and remodeling projects.

The program was developed to provide a uniform, national standard, recognizing and encouraging home-related green products and technologies. 

With this certification, installing a home waterless urinal from Waterless Co. a builder can earn six points toward meeting the Standard’s environmental quality requirements.

It also allows builders, designers, and homeowners to confidently select products that are proven to protect the environment and natural resources.

“The pandemic has put many commercial real estate projects on hold,” says Klaus Reichardt, CEO, and founder of Waterless Co., Inc., which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.  

“However, on the flip side, the pandemic has increased the number of home remodeling projects, likely due to remote working. In the process, the interest in home urinals has skyrocketed.”

Waterless Co is the oldest manufacturer of no-water urinals in North America. These systems require no water to work. When installed in homes, they can save thousands of gallons of water per year. 

Gravity pulls urine below a cylinder placed at the bottom of the urinal containing a sealing liquid, which blocks odors from being released. As the urine collects, it drains into the sewer pipe below.

According to Reichardt, another reason waterless urinals have recently been in greater demand, both in homes and commercial buildings, is because they help prevent COVID pathogens from being released into the air. Once airborne, these can be inhaled by restroom users.

“What is happening is like toilet ‘plume,’ caused when flushing a toilet. Now that we know traces of COVID can be found in urine, there is concerned COVID pathogens can be released into the air when a traditional urinal is flushed.”

The award recognizes Waterless company’s contribution to water efficiency and water conservation. It also helps homeowners do their part, protecting our most important natural resource: water.

Waterless Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Waterless Co., Inc. is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in May 2021, commemorating three decades of helping organizations in 18 different countries and the U.S. save tens of millions of gallons of water per year, reduce building operating costs, and promote sustainability.

As the company looks back, it is also looking forward, envisioning how it can help organizations in the next thirty years protect water, our most important resource, and use it more efficiently.

Founded by Klaus Reichardt, Waterless Co., Inc. makes a variety of restroom-related products; however, its main product line is no-flush or Waterless urinals.

The company was the first manufacturer of waterless urinals in the U.S.

As the name implies, waterless urinals use no-water to operate.  This also means they have no flushing devices, removing the most problematic component of a traditional urinal. 

With gravity, urine streams down the interior of the urinal and under a cylinder placed at the bottom of the urinal. It is then discharged into sewer pipes below.

The cylinder also prevents odors from being released into the restroom.

"While there were types of no-water urinals in other parts of the world, when we started in 1991, there were none in the U.S.," says Reichardt. "We were trailblazers then. Nobody even knew what a waterless urinal was."  

Because they were pioneers and have been in business for three decades, the company is now viewed as an ‘icon’ in the restroom products industry.

Marking this historic milestone, the company plans to expand its product lines, introducing new products that help keep restrooms cleaner and healthier. 

"Cleaner, healthier restrooms are key in the post-pandemic restroom," adds Reichardt. "This makes waterless urinals the perfect fixture for the restroom of the future."

Waterless Company Timeline

·       1991, founding of the company.

·       1992, introduction of disposable EcoTrap® cylinder.

·       1992, launch of BlueSeal® sealant liquid.

·       1993, awarded first General Services Administration government contract.

·       1994, introduction of first ADA compliant waterless urinal.

·       1996, GreenClean urinal cleaner introduced.

·       1998, EverPrime sealant liquid added to product line.

·       2000, home urinals division launched.

·       2001, Waterless urinals accepted by U.S. Navy for use on ships.

·       2005, NviroClean for cleaning waterless urinals introduced.

·       2010, distribution milestone - waterless urinals shipped to 18 countries.

·       2011-2020, accreditation by LEED®; WaterSense®; SmartWater Mark; and National Green Building Standard (NGBS)

About Waterless

Now viewed as an "icon" in the restroom industry, Waterless Co. Inc. is a leading manufacturer of modern-designed Waterless urinals, proven to reduce water consumption and promote water efficiency.  Based in Vista, Ca, the company started in 1991 and is the oldest manufacturer of Waterless urinals in North America.  The company also makes manufacturers other products engineered to help restrooms stay cleaner and healthier.

Eleven Ways to Protect Theater Patrons

The movie and theater industry, hit hard by the pandemic, is slowly reopening.

To ensure they open safely and to protect the health of theatergoers, Klaus Reichardt, CEO and Founder of Waterless Co., Inc., celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, offers the following suggestions:

• Create a written COVID-19 prevention plan.  Designate at least one person to ensure the plan is implemented.

• Establish a social distancing system for waiting lines.

• Require temperature and symptom checks of workers, vendors, and contractors, as well as theatergoers, upon entering the facility.

• Install hand sanitizers at building entries and throughout the theater.

• All employees should wear disposable gloves and be taught how to take them off properly.

• Restrooms should be cleaned and disinfected throughout the day; at the end of each day, consider using electrostatic disinfecting spraying systems after restrooms have been cleaned.

• In restrooms, install lids on toilets and replacing water-using urinals with waterless urinals. Both will help prevent the release of airborne pathogens that could spread the disease.

• Install messaging posters to remind the public to wear face coverings, practice physical distancing, wash their hands with soap for at least 20 seconds, and use hand sanitizer.

• Equip counters, terminals, desks, and help counters with hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes for staff and theatergoers.

• Adjust movie timing to allow for adequate cleanings of theaters between showings.  Arm rests and the tops of seats will need to be wiped down between screenings.

• Where possible, do not clean floors by sweeping or other methods that disperse pathogens into the air unless. Whenever possible, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

“There are many more things we can add, but one is to be sure that patrons know all you are doing to protect their health,” adds Reichardt. “This will encourage them to follow the rules and do their part as well.”

Making Restrooms Greener, Healthier, and Saving Money At It

Even with all the rain in California, half of the country is currently experiencing some form of drought. This makes this a perfect time to think about ways to make restrooms greener water efficient. The main reason for this is with more people starting to go back to the workplace and back to school, a green restroom is typically a healthier restroom.

We want to do everything possible in a post-COVID era to ensure restrooms, no matter where they are located, are clean, safe, and healthy as people return to the swing of things.

With all of this said, how do we go about making a restroom greener and save money too? Among the steps are the following:

Use green-certified cleaning solutions. These cleaning solutions have been independently tested and verified to help reduce cleaning's impact on the user and the environment.  Plus, today’s green-certified cleaning solutions are very cost competitive.

Use disinfectants sparingly.  In April 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they are concerned that we are overusing disinfectants. Further, not only is this unnecessary, but the possibility of someone also getting COVID by touching a surface is remote. The problem with disinfectants is that they can be harmful to the user.   Further, the CDC reports poisonings related to disinfectants have gone up since the pandemic began.

Install waterless urinals. When it comes to making restrooms greener, waterless urinals can serve us in two ways. There probably is no other building technology that can reduce water consumption as much as installing waterless urinals. Further, waterless urinals are healthier. By eliminating the "plume" of air released when a water-using urinal is flushed, this helps eliminate the chances of harmful pathogens being released into the air.

Sensor-Controlled Lighting.  There is no reason for lights in restrooms to be left on all day. Sensor-controlled lighting helps save energy. Taking this a step further, LED light bulbs should be installed. They use less energy, generate more light, and last far longer than traditional light bulbs.

High-Efficiency Toilets – with Lids. We have discussed the need for high-efficiency toilets several times in our posts. These typically use less than the 1.6 gallons per flush currently mandated by law. However, due to COVID, we should add a lid to these toilets. The lid helps prevent plumes from escaping, as we referenced earlier. This makes for a healthier restroom.

TMV. Thermostatic mixing valves are not as standard in North America as in other parts of the world. These valves mix the hot and cold water feeds to a pre-set temperature. This way, when the faucet is turned on, the water is automatically at the correct temperature. We often waste water if we must wait for it to get warm or, just the opposite, get cold. TMV systems can help eliminate this problem. Further, they help prevent releasing water that is too hot and scolding.

Enhanced Ventilation. Restrooms are not always well ventilated. Today, not only do we need well-ventilated restrooms, but air systems should have enhanced air filtration systems, such as HEPA filters, if possible. These do not work with all HVAC systems. Another option is using UV-C systems that electronically clean air as it is being released into the restroom.  These systems "zap" the air, killing pathogens in the process.

Taking these and many other steps will help keep restrooms cleaner, safer, and healthier. They should also help building owners cut operating costs and, if no-water urinals are installed, reduce water consumption dramatically. In other words, they have benefits all around.

The Predictions about Remote Working are Just Not Holding Water

Like so many businesses around the world, ours has been impacted by the global pandemic. Most of our waterless urinal installations are in facilities that are being renovated. Typically, when buildings are being renovated, owners and managers are focused on ways to reduce operating costs and make their properties more water efficient. 

Waterless urinals help accomplish both.

However, last year, several major U.S. employers announced they do not plan to ask their employees to return to the office. They can work remotely, they decided. They came to this decision because remote working has panned out better than anyone anticipated.

However, that might not be the case long-term.

For example, at the first of the year, Salesforce made headlines by saying it will allow all its staff to work remotely beginning in 2021. However, since then, the company has found out that 80 percent of its team want to return to the office—at least part-time—as soon as they can. Most suggested they would like to be in the office at least three days per week.

Let’s see what else is happening when it comes to the issue of remote working versus returning to the workplace:

·        In New York City, as of April 2021, only about 10 percent of the workforce is working in the city’s many high-rises.  However, it is expected that about half of them will be returning to work full or part-time by September.

·        Microsoft has been very flexible about allowing its staff to work remotely. However, the company announced at the end of March 2021 that it plans to ask workers to come back to work at its headquarters in Seattle.     

·        A year into remote working, many staffers say they appreciate the flex time it offers, the fact that they no longer have stressful commutes, the autonomy, and they say they are more productive. 

However, and quite interestingly, other employees report they prefer the set work schedules they once had; they miss being with their coworkers and people in general; and their work productivity has declined after months of remote working.  Some even miss the commute.  Further, most of them report a “blur” developing between work time and free time that they do not like.

·        By the second quarter of 2020, a survey of U.S. CEOs found nearly 70 percent planned to cut back on office real estate in coming years. A more recent study found that number had dwindled to just 17 percent.

·        Many employers are becoming concerned remote working will hamper their goal of creating a company “culture.” For many companies, their brand and their company culture are interconnected. If the culture goes, the brand might be next.

What’s more, many firms report that training programs are far more complicated—and less effective—when done remotely than when staff is in an office setting. This is likely because a great deal of the learning in training is done by employees interacting with each other.

We cannot deny that there are many benefits to remote working, and virtually all business leaders believe it will be part of our work culture going forward. However, people will be returning to the workplace. Students are already returning to schools.

What many will find as they return to the workplace is that waterless urinals have been installed.  The reason: less splatter. Because the virus has been found in urine, with less splatter, there is less chance that it will become airborne, potentially passing on the disease.

What we suspect will happen, and this is based on several different surveys and projections, is that while some form of remote working is here to stay, more people will be returning to their old work style than expected today. And the big driving force: they want to.

WATERLESS is the go-to company when it comes to reducing water consumption, understanding the many benefits of waterless urinals, and finding ways to use water more efficiently.  For more information, contact a Waterless Co Specialist.