Do you ever wonder about the amount of water that you use when you flush the toilet? Maybe not, but you should. Toilets can use up to seven gallons of water per flush–which is a lot. Fortunately, Liberty has taken a step to cut down our water use: dual flush toilets.

Dual flush toilets, while more expensive than regular toilets, are astronomically less wasteful than their predecessors. Get this: the average dual flush toilet uses about half of the water to flush that a regular toilet does. I’ll save you the math, but over the course of a year, dual flush toilets save 5110 gallons. Health authorities recommend that a person drink half a gallon a day; therefore, the amount of water that dual flushing toilets save in one year for one person is enough to hydrate a person for 28 years. I am grateful that our school can save that much water, because while we may not see the dramatic effects of that in America, the difference that amount of water makes is astronomical for people in drought-stricken countries.

Our school’s decision to install dual flush toilets is one for which we should all be thankful. While it doesn’t seem significant for us to pull the handle up instead of pushing it down when we pee, the payoff is worth it when you consider how much water the dual flush toilet saves.