A: Welcome to the world of water conservation! First off, I'm a big fan of waterless urinals. The average waterless urinal installed in a high traffic area (like an airport or mall) can actually save about forty-thousand gallons of water a year! This is a staggering figure, and like it or not, with water saving numbers like that we will see more and more waterless urinals installed in more and more bathrooms across the country.

The waterless urinals that I'm familiar with use a floating trap fluid system -- and here's how it works. First, the urinal itself has been redesigned to catch and divert all the urine to the drain. Inside the drain trap is a special "floating fluid" that deodorizes the urine and creates the trap seal to prevent sewer gases from entering the bathroom.

The urine is heavier than the trap fluid, and it simply passes through the fluid and down the drain. Once a day the urinal needs to be sprayed with a waterless urinal cleaner. Twice a month a bucket of water should be poured into the urinal to wash out the system, and then a cup of seal fluid is poured in to urinal to reseal the trap.

All in all, it's a very simple and effective water saving fixture. And yes, as long as it meets local codes, a waterless urinal can be used in a home as well as in a public restroom. For a final note, you might say that waterless urinals are the new "number one" water-saving fixtures for the future!