the loo bandit sees the light

just a super quick update...

felt the need for a little soul work last weekend and headed off to a church, (with several plastic bottles in my man-bag of course!). a few thousand souls (I mean litres) got saved during the first song, (though no one but me in the mens loo knew about it so it wasn't as celebratory as it could have been!). having not been the regular church goer recently I've now seen the error of my ways and plan to attend one or even several churches most weekends from here on in!

a day off spent in some nearby hills, (a popular local tourist destination), saw me find homes for another twenty or so bottles! a highlight of the day was when I stepped into a fancy resturaunt full of impeccably dressed diners, (I was dressed in a pair of dirty shorts, with sneakers and a t-shirt and my first thought was that I'd just walked in on a wedding reception). Just as I stepped through the door, the manager who was manning the desk, turned his head in a different direction and the two other staff waiting in front of me to seat paying customers, (and to guard against loo bandits), parted like the Red Sea in front of me, (God was definitely looking out for me!). running blind, a ray of sunlight (from heaven perhaps!?!?) seemed to draw my attention to a little sign that showed the way to the promised land! Four loos awaited me, but alas my supply of bottles ran out after planting the three I'd brought with me!

bandit counter: 76 loos
yearly water saving guestimate: 198,979 litres

super tuesday

no the loo bandit is not running for president of the united states of america ... yet! the loo bandit held his own 'super tuesday' this week, banditising an incredible 25 loos in a three hour blitz. After driving to a meeting for his real job in a regional centre about an hour and a half away from his home, he decided to stop at every service station and junk food outlet that was on his side of the road on the trip back. saving an estimated (always a conservative estimate) of almost 60,000 litres in 3 hours, (which could turn into more than half a million litres in the next decade!), this was the high point of the loo bandits journey thus far - restoring the faith considerably following the highly disturbing Hungry Jacks incident only hours before.

the loo bandit, still recovering from his finest hour (or three) on tuesday, is too tired to talk in the first person.

bandit counter: 54 loos
yearly water saving guestimate: 142,404 litres

shame hungry jacks shame

award for the most feral toilet I've ever experienced in my life goes to my local hungry jacks. I nearly vomited when I opened the cubicle door. almost put me off the loo bandit mission once and for all. I don't know what happened in that toilet but seriously it was like a Wes Craven movie featuring an elephant with bowel troubles. sorry, that's way more of a description than anyone needs!

did some more local banditising and my wife did her first one. we went for a walk at a popular bush-walking track and I tried to put bottles into the guys toilets there with no luck (really tight cisterns that I couldn't get off without totally busting the toilets themselves! lol!). I gave my girl a bottle and asked her to see if she could do one of the ladies. She came back out all of 20 seconds later empty-handed, grinning like something crazy that grins. She got in the car and as we were driving away she said, "there's another three toilets in there that I'll do next time". I think she's hooked.

including her first effort we did another ten loos, three in a resturaunt that is fairly heavily trafficked, the rest in servos and fast food places.

bandit counter: 29 loos, yearly water saving guestimate: 82,544 litres.

security to the guy with blue hands in aisle 18

had a spare hour to kill before heading to a movie last night...

left presents (of the bottle variety!!!) in toilets at red rooster, bunnings, kfc, two servos and fasta pasta. got an awesome suprise at fasta pasta - they had 3 loos which is weird cos they don't have many customers. at bunnings I was underprepared - only took one bottle, but needed two - loo bandit connundrum! planted one - will pay them a return visit. came out of the bunnings loo and a call for security came over their PA. i laid down on the ground and put my hands on my head and waited to be hauled away but no one came - must've been the lady trying to hide a gazebo in her handbag. got blue loo stains on my hands that wont come off - this could be my downfall.

the wife is still trying to come to terms with how I can just walk into a place, not buy anything, ask to use their toilet or just walk straight in. I will win her over and train her to visit all the ladies rooms that I've missed. i think she is secretly chuffed with her man's efforts to help the planet - little does she know that world domination is the ultimate goal. not sure she's all that impressed with the bandit mask I've taken to wearing around the house.

bandit counter: 19 loos/yearly water saving guestimate 54,512 litres

get involved

we just had our first email from a facebook friend wanting to join the loo bandit in his adventures by putting their own bottle in their own toilet.

we'd love people to use their bottles to do just that and even to do a little 'banditising' of their friends and families loos too! Just a word of warning though: the cistern - where you put the bottle is at the top of the toilet (don't put a bottle of water in the toilet bowl - this is not a good idea!!!). And don't force a bottle into your cistern or put it in the way of any part of your loo that needs to move to do it's job!

[the loo bandit will not be held responsible for you damaging your own or anyone else's toilet! Got it?]

if you add a bottle to a loo let us know here so we can keep a tally of it. If you can estimate how much water you'll be saving a year (size of bottle x flushes per day x 365 days), that'd be cool to.

the loo bandit will still attempt to personally deliver bottles to 1000 loos in 08 regardless of how many new bandits join us in our adventure!

water fact #1

1.1 billion people throughout the world don't have access to safe water.
check this out

17,520 litres in 60 seconds

the loo bandit has stepped it up.

the last 48 hours have seen another 7 bottles placed in loos in people's homes, a cafe and some service stations, (you do not want to visit one of those toilets unless you're desperate!).

came across my first toilet already containing a bottle (it was the smallest bottle you've ever seen so I added another a 250ml Sanpelligrino bottle so it's saving a little more!).

put a 600ml bottle in a really busy cafe that we go to regularly and did a highly conservative estimate of the number of flushes and water savings that one bottle will make in 08. Eighty flushes a day (this is a really conservative estimate), will now save 17,520 litres! Pretty incredible to think that if that loo keeps getting used at the same rate for the next ten years, we just saved more than 175,000 litres of one of the world's most valuable resources. It took all of 60 seconds to place the bottle and check that it wasn't causing the system to leak!

added another 300ml bottle to our own loo just to see how much water can be saved before the flush wont do its job! Nothing floating in the bowl with 900mls worth of bottles in the cistern! lol!

bandit counter: 11 loos/yearly water saving guestimate 29,765 litres

foiled by the golden arches

mcdonalds have stopped the loo bandit in his tracks!

armed with a fresh supply of bottles and a man-bag that holds four 600mls at a time, today was going to be the loo bandits finest hour!

maccas don't have toilets with cisterns - just a flush button to press in the wall! let's just hope the technology saves a few litres per flush and saves on the water bills of golden arches franchises across the planet cos we all know that mcdonalds need every dollar they can get!

the loo bandit will not be stopped (except by the toilets in the shopping centre he visited this afternoon which also had the button in the wall instead of a good old fashioned 'loo').

birth of the loo bandit: week one

January 1-7
Started with our home toilet so didn't need to be all that sneaky! My wife asked me what I was doing digging around in the toilet cistern. She knows I'm not a handy man! 600ml Classic Chocolate Milk Bottle planted. We're light flushers especially recently since we decided to turn into hippies and save the planet! But even with just five flushes a day (3 litres), we'll be saving more than a thousand litres of water in 2008. One down, 999 to go!

Big old-school filthy-as upstairs mens toilet, (I cleaned it last time!!!) at work that probably only gets flushed three times a time scores two 600ml coke bottles and could probably fit more!

House-sitting at friends place while they were interstate provided ample opportunity for a 600ml Diet Coke bottle to slide into their cistern!

Got busted adding another 600ml to my mates loo. He got suss when I brought an empty coke bottle into his house, asked if I could fill it up and then asked to use the bathroom! Not very subtle - will have to work on the technique some! He's one of the few people who've heard about the loo bandit, thinks we're crazy and laughed! Will check to see if he has taken it out next time I visit and I think it'll fit another bottle easy! lol!

Ran out of bottles! I can't drink any more Coke than I already do.

Asked a friend who runs a cafe to save all their empty coke bottles for me. She looked at me like I was a freak, gave me three bottles from the bin and said she'll see what she can do! Looks like I've found my supplier.

bandit counter end of week one: 4 loos

365 days: 1000 toilets

the mission: save 1,000,000 litres of water in one year from being flushed down the toilet.

the method: covertly place plastic bottles filled with water into the toilet cisterns of 1000 toilets in homes, churches, cafes and workplaces across the planet, (saving anywhere from 300ml to 1.5 litres every flush).

the mentality: water is one of the most valuable and taken for granted resources on the face of the globe and we who have plenty of it in the western world, waste it excessively.

the motive: to see what one ordinary slightly water obsessed man can achieve in 365 days with a little effort, a little sneakiness and alot of plastic bottles.

[the loo bandit: saving the planet one flush at a time]

2008: the year of the loo bandit

according to google, 2008 is the:
year of the potato;
year of the frog;
year of the rat;
year of the spaceship;
and the year of the confused.

2008 may be the year of all these things and many more but let's make one thing clear here and now...

2008 is the year of the loo bandit!

[the loo bandit: saving the planet one flush at a time]