Until I had seen it in one or two films or on TV this practice was unheard of for me. I grew up with putting the used toilet paper in the toilet being the correct thing to do. But I either see, or see references to the practice of putting it in a bin beside the toilet. I’ve seen this in reference to America but I’m sure it’s not just America. Possibly Europe too, and even in my own vicinity.
How common is this? Wouldn’t it cause an immediate and problematic smell?
What movies and TV shows showed this practice? I’ve heard of it being done in Asia, but not from movies or TV.
America? Not in the US or Canada. I can’t speak for the rest of the Americas.
ISTR it happening in a book set in the Greek islands circa mid 20th century. I think the pipes could handle waste but not paper.
Another American verifying we put it in the bowl before flushing, not in a waste basket. Using a bin seems a bit gross and beside the point of having indoor plumbing.
Maybe in some 3rd world country where they don’t have good plumbing, toilet tissue that doesn’t break down, or severe drought might a bin be used. Or perhaps whoever wrote the movie lived somewhere where they did this, but didn’t know that it wasn’t the norm wherever their movie was set.
I’ve never seen this in the U.S. or Europe but it is common in Mexico and not uncommon in Asia and Central Asia. It is imprudent to put your toilet tissue equivalent (TTE) in the toilet when (1) the toilet can’t handle it, and (2) when your TTE is tough (e.g., newspaper, magazine pages). In poor areas of many less developed countries, less than robust waste disposal systems and inferior TTE are common.
The difference in plumbing and TTE standards creates a culture clash when people from the U.S. clog up toilets in 3rd world countries and when people from 3rd world countries leave dirty toilet paper on the floor in countries where flushable TTE is the norm.
I stayed in a small hotel near Cancún, Mexico where we had to do this. It was explained to us as being a matter of plumbing capacity as the poster above says, but I don’t know if the situation was unique to the building, or if it extended to the entire neighborhood or town. Every other place I’ve stayed in Mexico has had the flushable system. Naturally I was discouraged to find out we had to use the bin in this one place, but it turned out not to be such a problem (maybe some luck was involved). There was a plastic liner in the bin & you do empty the bin daily.
I saw this once in the US, but it was in an international farmer’s market that was frequented by Chinese, Korean, and Mexican people. No idea who actually brought the habit with them, but it was pretty gross.
I’ve personally seen it in Cyprus, Thailand, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Vietnam. In some of those countries, however, the locals use water to wipe and toilet paper to dry, so the paper is barely soiled.
In elementary school, I had a friend whose parents were Danish and South American. They had a covered trash can in the bathroom that was indeed for the used toilet paper. I always found this odd since this was in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and I’m sure their plumbing could handle it, so it must have been a cultural thing one of the parents (probably the South American one) brought with them when they came here. As far as I know, however, the kids did it too.
My question is, what the Hell do you do with the can when it’s full? If you just throw it in the regular garbage outside, I would think that would represent a health risk to the point where the garbagemen would have reported you. Yes, I know they use automated trucks now, but back then, some poor guys had to manually empty the cans into the back of the truck. Remember those days? How would like to pull the lid off the can and be greeted with smell of week old used toilet paper during the summer?
I don’t get it… why even bother with the toilet at that point; why not just shit straight in the can? Saves on water, and the volume of poop can’t really take up that much of your average trash can. The nasty factor seems about the same as well.
In Costa Rica, unless you are in a very exclusive resort, you put the paper in the can. I was there last month and there was a guy with us who refused. Toilet backed up and overflowed.
I still want to hear about the movies and TV shows where this was shown.
It’s still common in the Greek islands - I can verify this having just been to one (Crete) where it was better to put the paper in the bin rather than down the toilet. As others have said, this is because paper can block the toilets whereas excreta generally won’t.
Not at all - the amount of waste on the paper is far less than what goes in the toilet, and I can confirm (see above) that it certainly does not smell as much as crapping straight in the bin would.
Had to do this on a project in central Baja California. Waste pipes too narrow was the given reason. Each day it was someones chore to burn the collected paper waste.
My great aunt had a septic tank instead of a sewer hook-up. She wanted to go as long as possible before having to have it emptied.
So not only were we to put our used toilet paper in a trash can next to the toilet but we could only flush once for every two pees. So if I was the first one to christen the bowl it couldn’t be flushed until another person came along and peed in it as well.
Each poop got its own flush (thank goodness for that!). We could also put any used tp with poop on it right into the toilet (again, thank goodness for that!).
In my experience in these places:
Central America: It’s the norm.
Cuba: It’s the norm.
South East Asia: In most of SE Asia toilets are very different in general: they’re just holes in the floor, and you use a hose and your left hand to wash instead of wiping with paper. They sometimes use paper to dry (as someone else mentioned), which they then put in a bin, but that’s a bit different.
Europe: Over here in Western Europe it’s non-existent. Most places in eastern europe don’t do it either, but in some places like Greece and Turkey it’s fairly common.
Australia: Travelled up the east coast, never saw it.
US and Canada: Never saw it (that was British Columbia, New York, Connecticut, California, Chicago, Florida, Arizona and Nevada).
I’ve heard that a lot of places in the Middle East use the same method as in SE Asia.
Throughout Central America you toss toilet paper into the bin rather than the toilet. We had bins that had lids on them that you would tap with your foot to open and I didn’t notice a smell, except in public restrooms that weren’t well maintained. When taking out the trash, you took it out as normal. However, the trash collection came twice a week, rather than once a week. Those who lived out in the middle of nowhere burned their trash.
Almost every country we’ve been in in Central and South America does this.
I have never, ever seen this in the US or Canada.
The apartment I’m currently staying in has…obstreperous plumbing. It can handle toilet paper occasionally, but too much and it backs up. The solution of the people who live here is to place the toilet paper in a wastebasket if all you’ve done is urinate. If you’ve moved your bowels, it’s okay to flush it. We also don’t flush urine only on one use, not because of the plumbing, but just because you don’t need to if there’s no paper in there.
Urine smeared paper doesn’t smell in the day or two it sits there before it goes out to the dumpster. I’m sure feces would.
We live in America, but no, this is not a common practice as far as I know. I don’t mind it, but when I get my own place, I’ll probably return to flushing the paper.