SuperForest

What better way to introduce a funny/uncool topic than starting with a bad pun (the uncoolest form of “funny”)? But bear with me!
Thanks to SuperForester Marco I spend quite a lot of time in Italy, where many bathrooms come fully equipped with a bidet and, as well as appreciating them as a convenient place to rinse the sand off my feet after the beach, I’m faced with the perennial question: to use or not to use?

The idea of not using toilet paper seems… weird, but in a lot of cultures – from France and Southern Europe (although anecdotally I get the impression they’re less popular with young people) to Japan and many Arabic countries – rinsing with water is the norm. So why use them?

SuperForest cares a lot about water conservation and water availability, so it seems really counterintuitive to consider using more water, but according to treehugger’s Lloyd Alter it takes 37 gallons of water and 1.3KWh of electricity to make ONE roll of toilet paper and Biolife Technologies, who make bidets, say that a typical bidet uses 1/8th gallon of water (by way of comparison, a regular – non-hacked – flush uses 4 gallons)

Not to mention the trees used – it takes 1.5 pounds of wood to make a roll of TP and Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the National Resources Defence Council says that over 98% of US toilet paper is made from virgin wood fibre rather than recycled.  Alter breaks it down:

We use 36.5 billions rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. each year, this represents at least 15 million trees pulped. This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes. The manufacturing process requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually. Also, there is the energy and materials involved in packaging and transporting the toilet paper to households across the country.

via flickr user Madd Hattere

Digging a little deeper, washing your tush with water also seems to have a host of health benefits and can be great for people with physical disabilities, those recovering from surgery, or elderly people in assisting independent living. Less toilet roll also means reducing the volume of solid waste which puts more of a strain on your lovely sewage infrastructure!

As for practicalities, instructables has a how-to and as an alternative to the traditional bidet you can get hose attachment ‘hand showers’ for your regular toilet and combined bidet-toilets (more economical as well as sidestepping one of my main concerns: the awkward jeans-round-ankles hop-over from toilet to bidet, which – unless I’m misunderstanding the process – is unavoidable and seems ripe for slapstick). To dry off afterward -  either with a couple pieces TP (less than if it were for the ‘whole job’) or your individual designated bidet-towel (ew, right? but how do we dry our squeaky clean butts after the shower?)

Gentler on your tush, gentler on the environment and, as has been said before, “if you got poop on your hand, you wouldn’t wipe it off with a piece of paper would you?”…all compelling points. I’m really coming around to the idea…and yet feeling a little unsure about it, makes me think this might be just another question of shifting my perspective from how I’d usually view something (like going without TP)?

What do you think SuperForest? Do you use bidets? Would you? I’d love to hear your take.
Love
P