Every time we flush the toilet we use drinking water. It seems absurd, but it’s true. Nine liters of perfectly clean water is wasted in seconds, multiple times a day, every day. Yet, a solution exists. And it came from Sidi Drici, a French plumber who lives in Melun, near Paris.
Sidi has invented a gray water recuperator that allows you to collect used shower water, filter it and reuse it for toilets. All without modifying the home system, with an affordable cost (between 600 and 1,200 euros) and no patent to pay. Simple, practical, effective.
How the gray water recuperator works
The idea was born while he was taking a shower, watching all that still clear water go down the drain. Instead of letting it go to waste, Sidi decided to collect it, clean it and reuse it. Its device is installed in the shower or bathtub, filters the water with a hair filter, disinfects it with chlorine tablets (like those in swimming pools) and sends it directly into the toilet tank.
The recuperator has dimensions similar to a water heater and can also be mounted in an apartment. There’s no need to call an engineer or redo the bathroom: a plumber and a little attention are enough. And the advantage is immediate.
How many liters do you save? The numbers speak clearly
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A person flushes the toilet an average of 4 times a day. With 9 liters per flush, they make 36 liters per day. In a family of 4 people this amounts to 144 liters per day, i.e. over 55,000 liters per year. And with the average cost of water at 4.52 euros per cubic meter, savings on your bill can exceed 250 euros a year.
And that’s not all: the system has already been adopted by private homes in France, by some elderly care facilities in Switzerland and has received a lot of attention online. But the most interesting thing is that Sidi did not patent his invention, so anyone can use it, replicate it and install it.
Sidi Drici is not just any entrepreneur. He is also president of the “Melun, Capitale de la Solidarité” association and in the breaks between one job and another he helps the homeless, distributes food, organizes solidarity collections and supports those in difficulty. His invention was born precisely from here: from the desire to do something useful for everyone, without making money.
If I charged for this invention, it would be like charging the sun.
And in fact he chose not to register any patent, precisely to leave the project free and accessible. A rare choice, which has affected many people even outside the French borders.
Why do we continue to use drinking water for the toilet?
Today, in 2025, it is still normal to use potable water to flush toilets. But does it really make sense? With the climate crisis, increasingly frequent droughts and rising resource costs, rethinking our consumption is urgent.
The Sidi Drici system shows that you can do better, without complicating your life. With a limited investment, environmental, economic and practical benefits can be achieved. And his example reminds us that we often don’t need great technologies, we just need to observe reality, ask ourselves a few more questions and have the desire to change things.
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