Growing up in Canada I doubt you’ve ever given a second thought to why we clean our bottoms with paper. As someone who did not grow up here let me tell you – it’s unusual and downright weird. What if I got home after a long sweaty run and told you I was going to take a paper towel bath? You would look at me as if I was crazy. And yet that’s exactly what we do with our bottoms and somehow this has come to be accepted practice.
The majority of the world uses water to clean themselves after defecating – either with a handheld bidet (a small nozzle and hose connected to the toilet tank) or with a mug of water and their left hand. It’s odd that this thought makes us squeamish isn’t it? We live in such a sterile environment that our own feces makes us squirm – even though it is one of the most natural and basic parts of human life. But move past your squeamishness and stay with me. Water is actually a much better way to clean ourselves in that it actually works rather than just smearing things around. Who is cleaner – the people who clean themselves with water or the people who clean themselves with paper? Running water remains the most efficient way to clean ourselves regardless of which body part we’re talking about.
Canadians on average use 22 kg of toilet paper per person every year. And a significant portion of this paper comes from boreal timber. We are in effect slowly trading our forests for an idiosyncratic inefficient habit. Globally, the use of toilet paper is on the rise as well. I travelled to India this past summer and for the fist time saw on some grocery store shelves toilet paper. North America remains the promised land for many. As such Western products from cars to designer jeans become aspirational. We can now add toilet paper to that list. Never mind its cost to the environment. Never mind that it works worse than water.
I am no environmentalist. Humans are the most important living things on this planet. Our conscious minds are special and unique and so our needs and yes even our wants must come first. However, I also believe that humans should be aware of the consequences of our choices. It is perfectly okay if we decide that wiping our bottoms with paper is worth the northern boreal forest. BUT we should also understand exactly what we’re choosing every time we tear off another sheet of tp.
Paper companies have increased recycled content and harvest trees from forests sanctioned by organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council. This is of course better management of resources, but I do not see how we can provide 22 kg of toilet paper to the entire world in a sustainable way. If we continue to use tp we are in effect asking the rest of the world to act in a different way, while our behavior continues unchanged – that doesn’t seem right.
So how do we change this behavior? It won’t be easy. First purchase a kit that retrofits your existing toilet such as the Brondell Clean Spa Hand Held Bidet ($59, homedepot.ca). Then we must simply begin to learn how to clean ourselves with water again. Although similar cleaning systems are used widely throughout Europe and the rest of the world it is wholly absent in North America. Thus this knowledge is forgotten in our society so your parents can’t teach you – you’ll have to teach yourselves.
That most adults will read this and not change their behavior is a testament to power of habit and the peculiar selective way adults, including myself, can justify irrational behavior. Young people are different. They are fiercely idealistic and can follow an argument even if it leads to an uncomfortable conclusion. And make no doubt about it changing the way we clean our bottoms will be uncomfortable in the beginning. But uncomfortable changes in behavior is the path to a more sustainable way of living. In today’s modern world we have this implicit belief that somehow technology will save us. That there lies some magical solution in the near future that will allow us to keep consuming and living exactly the same way without the guilt of living unsustainably. That isn’t true.
Teenagers, you want to change the world? Start with your bottom. Buy the kit. Watch a YouTube video on how to install it. Then just do it.
Medicine Hat News. December 2014.