While on a trip to San Diego recently, several of us made a day jaunt down to Tijuana–the second largest city in Mexico. We had lunch at a nice department store–good food, lovely views, the works–but when I went to use the restroom, I was appalled to find that one isn’t supposed to flush toilet paper down the toilet. No, people clean themselves with the paper, then toss it into a small uncovered trashcan placed next to each toilet. Talk about a heavy experience…
I’ve been throughout Europe, Australia, and Asia (admittedly staying in luxury hotels when in Malaysia, Thailand, and India), but this is the first time I’ve seen this practice, which provokes a few questions:
Is this done in Tijuana’s luxury hotels? In Mexico City’s?
Is this done to place less strain on the city’s plumbing system? How so?
How common is this practice in the larger cities of the “Third World”? (Especially in the nicer hotels and restaurants)
my wag is that they use a septic system or cesspool and are not hooked up to the city sewer (if they have one at all). The extra paper will cause it to clog more often and shorten it’s life.
I have found this also in other countries. Anyone who owns a boat with a toilet know a lot about toilets clogging. In one boat I have seen the notice: Do NOT put anything in the toilet if you have not eaten it first. Here’s my two cents:
Some toilets have a tendency to clog due to poor design of the sewer pipe. Paper like news print or thick toilet paper can aggravate this but very thin toilet paper will not. In boating stores they sell “special” toilet paper for boats which happens to be just common, thin and easily dissolved, toilet paper (at twice the price).
During my recent trip to China the hotel toilet had a great tendency to clog. This was due to the pipe running horizontally for about 7 feet before running into the vertical stack (also due to the fact that westerners shit square as all Asians know). The hotel asked guests not to put the toilet paper into the toilet. The paper will not be the cause of the clogging but it just makes it worse by coveruing the tiniest gaps where water could still pass. I was much better than the staff at clearing the clog.
(1) boiling hot water left to stand in the pipes for a while will often soften up the clog.
(2) wjen you have a poorly designed pipe, like was the case, you need massive amounts of water to flush well. I would pour a bucket of water into the toilet as I flushed it and this generally helped a lot.
So, the problem is generally (a) badly designed plumbing and (b) hotel staff who do not understand the cause of the problem (maybe influenced by times when people used toilet paper with the consistency of newspaper which took forever to dissolve). Then you also have people who will throw anything into a toilet and this warning will discourage them. Many women will throw tampons or pads. In one hotel i was told they had to remove the toilet and they found a toothbrush…
Short answer: it’s an old sewer system, it’s way over capacity, they have to share parts of it with San Diego (U.S.A.), they’re working on upgrading it, but it’s an uphill battle, since more and more people keep moving to Tijuana. And if everybody works together and don’t flush the TP, there’s good chance the pumps and pipes at Pump Station #1 won’t clog up and fail, and send raw sewage down the Tijuana River to San Diego.
Placing soiled tissue in a trash can is also common in rural Greece.
Before you get too certain about the superiority of Western or US habits, consider this- many peoples consider the fact that we rub ourselves with paper after defecating as gross. Many people use water and or soap after defecating and would never dream of doing anything as gross as rubbing paper there!
I do have personal experience of the Tijuana sewage system- in the sixties I used to surf from Imperial Beach In CA and next to TJ- my bedroom looked out onto the Tijuana Bull Ring. We used to say it was not so much surfing as going through the motions! Lucky not to have contracted polio or hepatitis etc., but we just didn’t worry about that sort of thing then.
I have some experience with the plumbing systems of about 60 countries in North America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The only place where I have FREQUENTLY seen containers for used toilet paper next to toilets is in Mexico. I’ve seen it all over Mexico; it doesn’t have anything to do with the limitations of the Tijuana sewage system.
I don’t know for sure why this custom has developed in Mexico more than elsewhere, but I have a theory (CMIIAW). In most developing countries, especially in Asia and francophone Africa, the first step up from a pit latrine is a squatter. Basically a porcelain basin in the floor with a hole in it leading into a large diameter pipe. A nearby source of water is used for rinsing the basin and washing the waste down the pipe. This works great and does not clog easily, no matter what you use for TP (e.g., Sears catalogs). In Mexico however, I have never seen such a practical sanitary installation. In Mexico, the first step up from a pit seems to be an American-style toilet. These do get clogged easily, especially when used by people who use really cheap TP (e.g., Sears catalogs) or who have little experience with indoor plumbing and don’t realise you can’t use U.S. style toilets for the general disposal of trash (e.g., for discarding toothbrushes, etc.). So I’d say it’s an example of inappropriate technology.
The Mexican practice also sometimes causes a culture clash when people brought up in Mexico visit the U.S. and try to do what they think is the right thing by carefully placing used TP in a neat pile on the floor next to the toilet.
The “no paper in the toilet” rule generally applies in Vietnam as well. The toilets in Saigon are connected to a proper sewer, not a cesspit (I think), but the pipes are just too narrow to cope with large gobs of paper. There is a small garbage can next to the toilet in which you place the used paper. Just make sure you fold it up into a little parcel first (with the goodies on the inside). This stops the smell problem.
In most places in Thailand (and some places in Vietnam), I found that there is no toilet paper provided. Instead, there is a small, high-ish pressure water gun on the end of a short piece of flexible metal hose, with a trigger on the nozzle. You wash yourself with that. Plumbing issues aside, toilet paper is out of the question because the entire room is a “wet zone”. The shower is right next to the toilet, and there is no screen. You can splash around to your heart’s content, and even use the gun to clean the toilet of ahem skidmarks. I found it weird at first, but later I began to prefer this system, and found it much more hygienic.
OK, i’ve got a dumb question. I’ve never used a bidet before, so I guess I don’t understand the entire procedure. After using the bathroom, the bidet squirts water on your backside, right? Well, then what? Get your underwear damp when pulling up your drawers? Drip dry? It sounds like a lot of places where there are bidets don’t have toilet paper of any kind, so how are you supposed to dry yourself? Some nasty community butt-drying towel hanging on a rack?
I spent the summer of 1990 in Greece. At that time, placing used tissue in the trash was the norm even in Athens. I suppose some of the more ritzy places may have had better plumbing, but in our apartment, and in every hotel I stayed in, the tissue went in the trash.
It’s really not that bad once you get used to it. I prefer being able to flush, but throwning it away wasn’t a big deal.