Could Life Without Toilet Paper Be Better

With all this TP madness going on, this timely Vice Article got me thinking.

TP is nice, but humans got along fine without it for at least 70,000 years (I’m pretty sure I read that in Sapiens) if not much longer. It’s only recently that people in certain countries have become dependent on these small white squares. What did they use before that? What do billions of people use right now? And what should we be using today? Water. And a hand. There, I said it. No one talks about this, but they should. It would save countless trees, endless amounts of water, and untold of hours of worry. Cleaning yourself this way is not hard to do. The logistics are simple. It’s the mental and cultural gap that’s a challenge to cross. But what awaits you on the other side? A blissfully clean backside.

The US uses 36.5 billion rolls per year(pre corona) and harvests 15 million trees to do so, some of which is old growth trees from Canadoan Boreal Forests.
I now, however am considering going TP free and this "thought experiment" was kind of a tipping point for me.

First, a thought experiment: If you were walking barefoot through your yard, and felt the unpleasant squish of fresh dog do through your toes, what would be your reaction? Would you think, “Geez, I need to get some dry, easily torn paper to smear this off my foot”? No. You would quickly get yourself to a hose, or a sink. You would find some soap. And you would scrub your foot off using your hands.

That makes sense to me...smearing existing waste from/into my skin seems a bit funky. Plus the bleach and chemicals in TP we daily dose ourselves with doesn't seem like a great idea.

Thinking of touching that area directly after a session has always seemed gross to me, and just running water over the area without additional scrubbing doesn't seem thorough....I think? There are a variety of alternatives to TP including Bidets, either in the toilet or beside the toilet, plant material, shells or just our hands and water/soap.

Japan uses a system that sound appealing, temperature controlled water that shoots from numerous directions. The Toto is an international hit.

Now I can see this TP free idea for personal use at home for sure, but when it comes to public toilets, ermm, not so sure. What about any backsplash residue from previous user on the water instrument and some of that residue joins the direct stream to your area? Of course most public toilets have more than just droplet residue on them
I guess we could do what many of us do anyway, preflush and lay paper liner down or do a pre wipe, which still uses paper, but(t) still.. If we do continue to use paper, we should be utilizing hemp for TP becasue of it's sustainability and lower costs.

Perhaps a world without TP would be a better world and leave some trees for better purposes?

I dont get the TP chaos , where did all ya linen and cloth towels went ?? did they shut of the water so you cant wash those linen and cloth towels ?

Thats what you get with large groups of dumb people watching Teeeeeveeeeee…

But it probably would be better in many ways if we ditch toilet paper.

a reply to: waftist

the imperial roman armies - got issued a sponge on a stick - 1 per 10 men

what have the romans ever done for us

well they demonstrated that they could wash the sponge after each bloke crimped a length

a reply to: waftist

It's a trade off. Waste more water with the extra handwashing because 20 seconds with a hand covered in crap isn't going to cut it. But then again your hands might be cleaner after than they were before. But then think of the extra soap exposure you will have for that 2 minutes of scrubbing your hand. Then the added lotion, oil, lanolin, etc your hands will require because they are dry and cracking.

Before toilet paper we used leaves, moss, cloth we washed. This all leads to further environmental impact.

There is also a need for cloths or air-drying systems with a bidet as well which has it's own environmental impacts and potential for skin issues.

Push comes to shove and you have no TP or Bidet then just use some washable cloths or a combo of diluted soapy water squirted from an old sports cup or whatever and then dry your butt with a washable cloth.

Then wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Sponge on a Stick, that's gonna be the name of my new business!

It makes one wonder if that's why we domesticated animals, let that goat's tongue get right in the there!! 🤢

Sorry guys!

There is only a shortage of toilet paper being produced only an unnecessary demand because people are hoarding

Clearly people are not going to give up on it soon

I am not flagging this thread. I like toilet paper, it is way better than a sears catalog. I am one of the white privileged, it is a privilege to have that white toilet paper. We also have a shortage of water in this country, those butt sprayers use water.

If AOC wants to do something green she needs to author a bill to reduce junk mail. That alone would be one of the biggest carbon footprint reductions of all time and it would be simple. No more bulk rates. Everyone pays the same to send mail. Bet it stops immediately.

As for toilet paper really should be using it to keep disease from spreading. Once you visit a country that doesn't use it, doesn't take long to understand why.

originally posted by: TheGreazel
I dont get the TP chaos , where did all ya linen and cloth towels went ?? did they shut of the water so you cant wash those linen and cloth towels ?

Something called hygiene ?.....

In my day we washed and boiled terry toweling nappies/diapers today we

have disposals, how many parents today would like to go back to scraping

the nappies/diapers?

Toilet paper is so much more friendly than the squares of newspapers or the

shiny squares (izal, bronco) of bygone days. that didn't come on rolls but in

flat packs.

I wonder how many remember them?

Thats what you get with large groups of dumb people watching Teeeeeveeeeee…
But it probably would be better in many ways if we ditch toilet paper.

I think I'll stick with the friendly soft tissue of today

a reply to: Identified

I thought about that and am still unclear becasue creating tp uses a lot of water too.

Justin Thomas, editor of the website metaefficient.com, considers bidets to be “a key green technology” because they eliminate the use of toilet paper. According to his analysis, Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper every year, representing the pulping of some 15 million trees. Says Thomas: “This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching.” He adds that manufacturing requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually and that significant amounts of energy and materials are used in packaging and in transportation to retail outlets. Thomas points out that toilet paper is also a public nuisance in that it clogs pipes and adds a significant load onto city sewer systems and water treatment plants.

Link
Perhaps a balance as mentioned in article by pairing a bidet with a composting sawdust toilet for the ultimate green bathroom experience. Not convenient for sure to average person, but convenience, in some areas, could use a downgrade too for broader benefits...I know, haha right?

Biolife Technologies, manufacturer of the high-end line of Coco bidets, says the amount of water used by a typical bidet is about 1/8th of a gallon, with the average toilet using about four gallons per flush.

Thanks for the reply

ETA: BTW, for anyone concerned, I am not a greenie pushing an agenda here, just acknowledging a common practice and considering a personal change...it actually seems healthier to me.

bidets provide important health benefits such as increased cleanliness and “the therapeutic effect of water on damaged skin (think rashes or hemorrhoids).”

Hemp toilet paper, in fact hemp paper think I was reading we would get more yield per acre than trees anyway.Less grow time to a usable maturity I believe.

Friendly reminder:

Don't flush: cloth, paper towels, diapers, sanitary napkins, gloves, face wipes, baby wipes, dental floss, cotton pads, sponges, etc... Just because it can flush or gets wet doesn't mean it won't clog a sewer or septic.

Use your fingers and wash em off.. done

a reply to: waftist

Only until recently has India started using toilet paper. Before that and even much of India today only uses a pitcher of water and their hand (not sure of the details) but I think they use the left for cleaning their ass, and right for eating. If you go into the back country, you might find an old toilet which looks like a urinal on the ground. I suppose they let the water run down their lower back and rub off the # with their hand. I imagine your ass would be cleaner than with toilet paper as long as hand was clean. There is no toilet paper in these toilets only a pitcher to fill with water. You usually find the ground wet from water being splashed.

Many Japanese and Indian people find toilet paper disgusting to use 🤷‍♂️

Hemp can produce about 5 times an acre of material than trees can in a fraction of the grow time.

Grow Hemp + Aloe Vera.

Then open some facilities in communities that allow you to bring in your own hemp and aloe plant material where it is processed for toilet paper.

Preferably a free conversion but in order to keep facilities running, you could charge a fraction of the cost for the aloe enriched hemp tp than stores would.