To Bidet or Not to Bidet, That is the Question?

You have the power to stop toilet paper’s environmental impact

To bidet or not to bidet? That is the question? Sorry Shakespeare fans. Actually, I am not that sorry. Reality is becoming more dramatic than fiction. Greed, inequality, climate change…

Well here is a small thing we use everyday that adds to a big problem. Is it time to rethink our toilet paper habit? Like everyone else, I grew up using toilet paper and never gave it a second thought. It was my normal. So many of us use it all the time without even thinking.

Toilet paper’s story begins in a forest, long before that roll sees the inside of a bathroom, and it continues long after it is flushed away, in the clearcut forest and long-term climate impact it leaves behind. Whether you’re trying a zero waste lifestyle, being eco-conscious or just tired of spending your precious money on TP, you’re making a difference and recognizing that we can no longer ignore toilet paper’s environmental impact.

The planet can no longer “Spare a Square “

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Toilet Paper’s Environmental Impact

The sad reality is that Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper every year, representing the pulping of some 15 million trees. This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching. Manufacturing requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually, not to mention the significant amounts of energy and materials are used in packaging and in transportation to retail outlets.

Surprising but true, people in the United States use an average of 28 pounds of toilet paper every year, more per capita than any other country. If you assume an average roll weighs about 90 grams, that equals just under three rolls a week per capita being used at home, in restaurants and at the office.

The National Resources Defence Council, NRDC, published The Issue With Tissue; a report which shined a spotlight on the link between major U.S. tissue product manufacturers and the destruction of one of the most ecologically important forests in the world, Canada’s boreal forest. That report revealed the worst tissue brands driving boreal degradation and described the impact of using virgin pulp from old-growth forests like Canada’s boreal forest on the climate, species, and many Indigenous communities. Tissue companies are flushing away our forests and our future by making toilet paper from ancient forests essential to the climate fight. This forest stores nearly twice as much carbon in its soils and vegetation as the world’s combined oil reserves.

One more strike against toilet paper is the fact that it is also a public nuisance, in that it clogs pipes and adds a significant load onto city sewer systems and water treatment plants.

To Bidet or not to Bidet? The Solution

As the demand keeps increasing for toilet paper rolls, its environmental impact has become clear. The bidet is the green technology to eliminate toilet paper or at least significantly reduce its use.

Let’s stop toilet paper’s damage to the environment. Have a look, dig in and arm yourself with information and options.

Health Benefits

First off, it’s pretty easy to see that it is much more effective and cleaner. If you got really dirty, for example covered in poop from shoulders to toes, would you rather have access to a shower or a paper towel to clean yourself? Wiping sure wouldn’t be that effective! It is an extreme example, but it might help you to reconsider a lifelong habit; something that is so ingrained. So why is it normal to wipe our most sensitive areas with toilet paper?

Secondly, doctors have often touted the hygienic benefits of bidets. They provide important health benefits such as increased cleanliness and the therapeutic effect of water on damaged skin (think rashes or hemorrhoids).

Third, On the public health front, almost 80 percent of all infectious diseases are passed on by human contact. The (gross) reality that only about half of us actually wash our hands properly after using the facilities, making hands-free bidets a safer alternative all around. If you don’t have to use your hands at all then you’ve removed the chance of passing or coming in contact with a virus.

Trivial Water Use

To those who say that bidets waste water, advocates counter that the amount is trivial compared to how much water we use to produce toilet paper in the first place. 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.

making a single roll of toilet paper requires 37 gallons of water, 1.3 kilowatt/hours (KWh) of electricity and some 1.5 pounds of wood.

Lloyd Alter treehugger.com

Worldwide Bidet Use

Once reserved for Europeans, bidets are now popular all over the world, except in North America. 60 percent of Japanese households today have high-tech bidets made by Toto called Washlets, while some 90 percent of Venezuelan homes have bidets. Most people use a small amount of paper to dry their posteriors after the bidet has done its job, but more expensive air-drying models the need for paper altogether.

Bidet Options

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Handheld bidet bottle

These handy little bottles come in so many shapes and sizes and are portable for on the go use.

There are so many different designs out there, from inexpensive squirt bottles to fancier electronic ones that cost up to $75.

• Tushy Travel Bidet
• Toto Travel Handy Washlet
• Avanka Peri Bottle
• Happy Bottom Portable Bidet
• Wonderspray

Check out Well+Good for a better description and a review of these portable bidets and other options.

Handheld bidet sprayer

These units attach to your toilet and can be used as a bidet, a spray to clean your toilet and a spray to rinse of your baby’s cloth diapers.

• RinseWorks Aquaus 360
• SonTiy hand held Bidet sprayer
• MUIHA hand held bidet sprayer
• toptry hand held bidet sprayer
• Cadrim hand held bidet sprayer

For more information check this Top 10 Hand Held Bidet Sprayers

Bidet seat adaptor

These units are made to attach to your standard toilet and toilet seat.

• Tushy
• Omigo
• GenieBidet
• Luxe
• Brondell SimpleSpa

Check out reviews from the nytimes, nymag and thespruce

Bidet toilet seat

Toilet seats with a built in bidet are readily available. Some are very basic and only have a room temperature sprayer others have all sorts of bells and whistles. Luxuries like a remote control, a heated seat, a night light, warm and cold water, a deodorizer, a blow dryer and even an auto closing mechanism. The simpler the seat, the easier the installation. Consider that the fancier ones require a power outlet and close access to both your hot and cold water. This could require an electrician and a plumber.

• Toto
• Brondell
• Kohler
• American Standard
• Bio Bidet

Check out the links for more information and reviews by nymag, bidetking and the spruce.

Bidet Toilet/washlet

The Japanese have been using these for years and they are becoming quite trendy in fine dining restaurants the world over. Toto seems to be the most popular and often at the top of everyone’s list.

• Toto
• Kohler
• Bio Bidet
• Vovo
• Woodbridge

Check out these reviews by yuzumag, housegrail and sanitaryreview.

Stand alone bidet

These ones don’t really fit into smaller energy efficient living. They need extra space and planning before your bathroom is built. They require all the right plumbing and professional installation.

Most major toilet manufacturers, at least European ones, do have matching bidets. I am sure if you are getting one of these, you’re looking for a matching set.

With this in mind, this is something you may plan with an architect, interior designer or your local shop and I won’t bore you with the possibilities.

Hand held sprayer installation

Adapter/seat installation

Here are a couple videos that demonstrate adapter and seat installation. There are many more on Youtube and likely ones from whatever seat manufacturer you support.

If you know of a better video, drop a note in the comments.

Toilet paper options

Still not sold on the idea of a bidet? At a bare minimum then, switch to more environmentally friendly toilet paper. You can still make a difference with tissue products made from recycled materials or Bamboo that are far more sustainable. They do not rely on clearcutting forests and they emit much less greenhouse gas than tissue products made from trees.

Check out Trehugger’s best of list.

In the End, Everyone Wins

Maybe you just like the idea of a bidet for design reason. Maybe it’s suits your minimalist ethos or you just want to live a more sustainable life with fewer and better things.

I just recently installed a bidet seat at home and the look on my kids faces when they checked how it worked was worth the price of admission alone.

If the laughs, the look of surprise and slight horror on your kids faces when you spray water out of the toilet during a demo isn’t quite enough for you, choose a bidet for all the other good reasons. Win-win reasons like, saving old growth forests, keeping carbon stored in their soils, stoping the environmental impact of toilet paper, slowing climate change, saving the planet and even for personal health reasons.

For whatever reason you choose one, I promise it will be an experience.

The planet can no longer “Spare a Square”, choose a bidet.

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Thanks for reading,

Pat