Harv,
It's not the same thing. To be specific, I tried to empty the trash and got a message that this could not be done because the file in the trash was "in use" (which wasn't true). It seems to me that Permanent Eraser will securely empty the trash (that is, empty the trash normally and then overwrite the files) but not force the trash to empty.
If you download OnyX (from my link), see if the Cleaning tab has an option to force-empty the trash. That option exists in the Yosemite and all previous versions.
Jon
macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
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