One Flush At A Time
The CUNY Honors College has asked its students to research
Environmental Issues in New York City. A group of five students
from the Seminar class at Brooklyn College, one of the many CUNY
schools that participate in this program, chose to investigate the
environmental issues of a product very close to home, so to speak.
As opposed to focusing on a more recognized issue, these students
decided to take an everyday activity that most people take for granted,
and show the world that this very common process is actually of great
importance to the environment. Our daily trips to use the toilet
are common among neighboring households, but in the early days, a trip
to use the loon or the john were seen very differently. Having
access to these facilities in one's own home was considered a luxury,
and some of the environmental issues that were affected by the lack of
these luxuries had not even begun to be controlled. These same
conditions still exist, to some extent, in several developing countries
in the world. Although several projects have arisen in New York
to help improve our society and our environment, these other areas of
the world still have a long way to go. Residents of New York
City, should feel very lucky to be a part of the small percent of
developed countries in the world today.