In the US it’s almost universal practice to put used toilet paper into the bowl along with the … uh … rest of the stuff. However, in several countries (e.g., Chile and Argentina, which I recently visited) the common practice is to put used TP into a bin placed next to the toilet. There are signs, presumably for foreigners, advising not to put any TP into the bowl. It seems to me that any system that can handle human excrement should be able to handle the paper.
So what is different about the plumbing/sewage in these places compared to the US?
I don’t know about Chile or Argentina, but according to my Ecuadorian friend, it’s because their plumbing systems are very poorly designed and installed. They tend to think bigger=better, and faster=better, so their pipes are too big and the water moves too fast, which causes a lot of clogs and backups if there is too much… extraneous material.
They do the same thing in Taiwan but really the sewer systems can handle the paper. I have a friend who used to work for Toto, the Japanese toilet manufacturer.
They have signs telling people to put the paper in the trash in some places in Israel, mostly in older public buildings. I don’t know if its’s bad plumbing or bad custom, but either way, I ways flush my toilet paper because I am not a God damned savage.
In some places toilet paper is given as a courtesy to foreigners and locally considered unsanitary as one should wash their backside after deification. As such their plumbing might not be designed for paper, and when it does clog it would be more likely with paper in it so paper gets a bad rap, along with sewer treatment, septic systems/cesspools not designed with paper originally in mind and may get overloaded with that addition.
The Yucatán peninsula is a huge limestone reef. And lacks treatment plants. Waste is dumped in a hole in the limestone. The excrement breaks down and is filtered through the limestone. Whereas toilet paper doesn’t breakdown as easily. And may clog the limestone.
Large hotels in Cancun are required to have their own treatment plants. So tourists there can put tp in the toilet. They still have waste bins next to the toilet. I believe it is for people that are accustomed to using them.
When the new Costco opened in Mérida, it placed signs stating to put tp in the toilet. And there are no waste bins in the stalls. I assume it is because they have their own treatment plant. It must be confusing to the locals i,e no waste bin.
I can’t speak for the rest of Mexico or Latin America, but there are always waste bins next to the toilet. And the people are accustomed to using them since childhood. When I am in the USA, I have to retrain myself to put the tp in the toilet. Some habits are difficult to change.
I know some older folks, living in older farm homes, that don’t put any paper in the toilet. A lot of septic systems, especially as they get older, don’t process very well. Speaking from personal experience, baby wipes don’t work in a healthy system. I had a friend of mine who prided himself, that he never paid to have his tank pumped. Last year, it simply stopped. He ended up with backed up toilets, nobody taking a shower for a couple of days. His tank was completely full of “stuff”. It had been that way for awhile, and the crap was going out into his drain field. He had a big puddle where his drain field used to be. About $5000 later, he had a clean tank, and a repaired drain field.
This is very widespread in Latin America. In fact, outside of major cities it may even be the default. It appears to be common in some of the poorer countries in Europe, and evidently other places as well.
I believe the issue is frequently that the pipes are too narrow, or sometimes that older pipes are made of clay. These can develop places where toilet paper can hang up. Once a clog develops, it just builds up.
In the case of septic systems, the tank may be too small for toilet paper to break down before it creates a problem.
The thing is that toilet paper is thin but it doesn’t dissolve completely like excrement does. Excrement can’t usually create a blockage by itself because water will dissolve. A sheet of toilet paper doesn’t dissolve, and if it gets caught on something additional pieces can get hung up and create bigger and bigger clumps.
Some of the toilet paper that I saw in the Czech Republic (and the samples that my wife brought home from Russia) was thick, and seemed to have a waxy coating – they were closer in texture to a page from National Geographic than any toilet paper I’ve ever seen in the U.S. I expect that they wouldn’t quickly decompose, period, much less dissolve in a sewer or septic system.
European TP is gawdawful. Think of newsprint…with splinters.
Sounds like the use of clay pipe is the chief culprit. Old clay pipes become fragile, and they are magnets for root growth. And when the roots get in, anything will cause a clog!
Carry your own TP. Flush it along with the nasties. DON’T use the toilet as a trash bin or garbage can! And never put any grease whatsoever in a private septic system!
~VOW
Curious when you made this observation, a sentiment that was still in guidebooks when I began traveling in the 1980s. But my experience over the last 20 years in Western Europe has been that the TP is superior to most of what’s available in the US.
I concede to your knowledge. My last “venture” to Europe was in 1986.
The hilarious part of the “newsprint with splinters” is that you could go to any market, and the nice, white, soft stuff was on the shelf, available for home use!
~VOW
Which probably means that you were in either a public place or a cheap hostel, and they were trying to save money. Yeah, kinda annoying. But not really all that surprising.
In eastern Europe, it was more like crepe paper, although that’s probably changed. We used to carry a roll of western TP with us when traveling to the eastern bloc, but you had to make sure you carried it to work with you, as hotel staff would steal it.
RV toilet paper is made to dissolve easily, as an RV tank is basically a septic tank and gets dumped periodically into a larger septic tank when full. You don’t have to use it, but eventually you’ll be sorry you didn’t.