Entrepreneur Wally Berry's career has come a long way..... from running insurance companies... to showing people how many golf balls his new invention can flush down a toilet.
Wally Berry: On Sept. 1st, the new requirement is going to be 350 grams of matter. So twelve golf balls is 2, 4,...
Berry is standing with Dave Pierson, an engineer from the nonprofit manufacturing advocacy group, MAGNET. These two people have completely reinvented the toilet flapper. Their version looks like a hamburger-bun sized balloon stuck to an accordion-like hose.
Wally Berry: Twelve, that's what the government requires. So, fourteen, sixteen...
Berry's product uses air to seal the hole in the tank that water moves through when you flush. The expandable hose creates a vacuum so it uses less water per flush and can't leak. There's really nothing else like it on the market.
Wally Berry: Ah, let's do twenty-four and see what happens...
Inspiration came after a leaky flapper in Berry's vacation home led to a shocking water bill. Berry got a loan from Cuyahoga County for new product development; that along with another $250,000 of his own savings and help from MAGNET engineer Pierson, led to the Siphon Flush. They debuted the product at a conference last fall. Pierson noticed it was a hit among municipal water districts who say leaky flappers can waste tremendous amounts of water.
Dave Pierson: Everybody that came up to it, looked at it and you could see, they'd look at it for about 5 seconds and then, you could see the light bulb go on: 'Oh, I see how that works.' Oh, boom, and then they are in the booth and they want to know how much it is, they want to know when they can get it, they want to know everything.
The Cleveland-based company has 17 thousand orders before production has even begun. Shaun Rydell, water conservation coordinator for the city of Prescott, Arizona purchased several siphon flushes to test for her community. She says she's seeing lots of new companies bringing products and services to help conserve water.
Shaun Rydell: I think that there are some really good opportunities to work with large commercial water customers as well as residential water customers including municipal governments to design incentive programs that put people to work in their own community.
There's another really interesting twist to this story. Back in Northeast Ohio a manufacturing plant full of people waiting to work sit at tables. These are workers of SAW Inc. an employer of people from Cuyahoga County's program for the mentally and physically challenged. I asked SAW's Marilyn Jares how important it was to get work with Wally Berry's Siphon Flush.
Marilyn Jares: Extremely important because we've had so many wonderful customers that worked with us for years either go to China or actually, physically move to Mexico. It's had a real impact on our sales. 2008 was the first year we didn't offer a bonus at the end of the year. We couldn't.
Jares says as many as three dozen SAW workers will start assembling Siphon Flushes this week. She's hoping to hire more workers if demand grows. One of the conditions for the Cuyahoga County loan is that Siphon Flush employ local residents. A local auto parts maker and a polymer manufacturer are also working on the water-conserving flapper. They are all entering the green market world - a world Colette Chandler knows well.
Collette Chandler: It's a $209 billion marketplace and it's positioned to grow to $425 billion next year so there's lots of opportunity to get market share.
Chandler's firm is one of several companies working with MAGNET to help manufacturers find ways to become more environmentally conscious: from processing and packaging to product development. Chandler says companies have the potential to not only find new customers and markets, but to improve efficiency and save money. Siphon Flush founder Wally Berry is banking on the belief that there's still plenty of business to be found in the green marketplace despite the economic recession.
Wally Berry: I think the timing is just perfect for this product. Everyone's looking for ways to save money, looking for ways to conserve and this product does both.
Berry says most municipalities will test the device first, and then he hopes, the orders will come flowing in.