Mother
Nature Puts Freeze on Green Solar powered Toilet
thenewamerican ^ | 12.30.08 | William F. Jasper
Posted on Saturday,
January 17, 2009 4:28:42 PM by Coleus
With great fanfare, the City of Portland, Oregon,
inaugurated its first solar-powered "loo"
in Old Town, on December 8. "At the
unveiling, mayor-elect Sam Adams gave the fancy new toilet its first ceremonial
flush and Commissioner Randy Leonard was awarded with an honorary golden
plunger," reported Portland's KGW-TV.
Leonard, who helped design the solar-powered
outhouse, said the $140,000 price tag was nothing to worry about because
"we're patenting the design and we intend to actually market them."
The city could actually make a profit down the road, he said. Mother
Nature was less than cooperative, however, dumping record-breaking snowfalls on
the Portland
area in the three weeks following the green loo's
send-off.
According to news accounts, "Snow covered the
restroom's roof-mounted solar panels, cutting off the flow of power to the
storage batteries, which were completely drained and damaged." And without
power, "The heat tape around the water lines stopped working, prompting
the bureau to lock it up." No reports yet on how much the repair costs
will be, or when the loo will be open for business
again.
More Green Woes for Portland
Seems the supposedly eco-friendly plans of Oregon's greenies are backfiring all over
the place. From solar-powered parking meters to energy-conserving building-code
mandates, good intentions have gone awry. Peter Korn of the outlookonline.com
reports: "Of all the reasons for hating Portland's supposedly green
parking ticket dispensers, consider this one: Each year, they produce more than
9 million pieces of little sticky-backed paper that clutter the floors of cars
before they finally are disposed of — in the trash."
"You probably never have tried to recycle a Portland parking meter
receipt," Korn continues, "which is a good
thing, because they're not recyclable. Once upon a time we put our quarters
into parking machines and the waste was, well, nothing. Now we have
solar-powered ticket dispensers that create an incredible amount of
garbage."
The ticket dispensers use about 6,500 rolls of thermal sensitive paper
annually. "Being sustainable can be messy," notes Korn.
"And don't forget about all the glass cleaner Portland residents use trying to remove from
their windows the bits of sticky paper that didn't cleanly come off at first
yank." Far more serious, though, is Oregon's state building code that is turning
many buildings green — with mold. The newer airtight homes and commercial
buildings don't breathe, causing a major problem with mold and mildew, reports Korn.