toilet paper?

Discussion in 'Living on the Earth' started by hummblebee, Feb 1, 2008.

  1. hummblebee

    hummblebee hipstertist.

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    Okay, I'm serious here... I don't want this to be full of people telling me that I'm being gross.

    In the last couple of years our household's eco-footprint has gone waaaaay down. :) Yay! We don't use plastic bags. We've switched to cloth grocery bags, menstrual pads, napkins and handkercheifs. We recycle everything we can. We hardly produce any trash at all! Some time soon I'm even going to start investing in reusable and sealable glass jars, bottles, etc. to replace plastic.

    The one wasteful thing I haven't quite reconciled in my mind is toilet paper. We buy seventh generation (the recycled stuff)... but it still seems soooo wasteful!

    I know leaves are the obvious answer - and fine when I'm in the wilderness. But I don't want a pile of leaves in my indoor bathroom. Has anyone else thought about using handkercheifs or something, and washing them out? It's a step I don't know if I'd take... but I'm curious.

    The question I keep asking myself: "What did/would Laura Ingalls do?"
     
  2. scarlettchasingroses

    scarlettchasingroses strawberry tart

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  3. Olympic-Bullshitter

    Olympic-Bullshitter Banned

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    Laura Ingalls would have wiped her ass with a dry corn cob.
     
  4. homeschoolmama

    homeschoolmama Senior Member

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    Yup, cloth TP. Think terry "baby washcloths" essentially. I've even SEEN baby washcloths at the dollar store, 6 for $1 if you don't feel like finishing edges.

    We've considered this in the past. A few thoughts...
    * definitely still keep a roll of TP handy for company
    * a spray-bottle full of soapy water is nice to have in the basket with the wipes
    * and TP is still nice to have on hand for... well, anything that might stain ;)

    DH & I still disagree on this one. He thinks it's crossing a line between "consciousness" and "decency" and I think that as long as it's just for the four of us, and ONLY for those "stain-free" visits... then why not? Cloth pads & diapers didn't phase him, so I'm not quite sure why he's against this.

    As for what did Laura do? Well while most people then were using the Farmer's Almanac or Sears catalog or actual toilet-paper as it hit the markets in the early 1870's, Laura & most other Pioneers used a cloth rag. (corncobs were a bit before that) Some families had one for each member of the family, others just used the same one for everyone. It sat in the outhouse... and got washed with the weekly laundry each Monday.
    love,
    mom
     
  5. lace_and_feet

    lace_and_feet Super Member

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    Why not look into a bidet? Seriously. I think that would be the least wasteful idea and you could probably figure out how to make one yourself. You could pretty much just use a hose...

    ETA: I meant to specify a hand-held bidet.
     
  6. xexon

    xexon Destroyer Of Worlds

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    This is a question of sanitation. Lots of nasty bugs in human feces.

    Stick with TP, and flush it down and away.

    Leaves for daily use are for extremists. And after my close encounter with poison oak years ago, I'll stick with TP.



    x
     
  7. hummblebee

    hummblebee hipstertist.

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    :) Thanks for the info everyone!

    I'm glad to know I'm not alone in considering cloth TP... biggest issue now is (and this seems to be a common one among women, now I've looked around a bit) my husband is completely weirded out by the idea.

    I'm not pushing for the change to be immediate. But I figure by the time we have to worry about cloth diapering (which will likely be a LONG way off) we might be able to go there.

    x, if you think such a thing would be unsanitary, how do you feel about cloth diapering, or menstrual pads for that matter? I'm just trying to find a less wasteful way to live... and I can see a lot of waste that goes into TP. Not only in the production, but in packaging, transport, and processing that sludge in the sewers. Plus, I'd imagine that once we own a place and have to worry about maintaining our own sewer lines, not having TP go through them will be less of a risk. :)

    I obviously didn't consider leaves to be a real option for this type of use... which is what I said in my original post. But FYI, I know how do ID poison oak and ivy, have for many a year, and I'd never wipe my booty with it! I'm still not above using leaves in an outdoor/hiking/rainbow/primitive living situation... but I'm obviously not going to sift through my compost pile for suitable butt-wiping material.
     
  8. mitten_kitten

    mitten_kitten daisymae

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    The poop of a breast-fed infant is completely different that the poop of anyone else.
    So cloth diapering is no biggie.

    I would be concerned about the biohazard of cloth toilet paper...so many illnesses are spread through unsanitary conditions. I would not want to keep poop around.
     
  9. hummblebee

    hummblebee hipstertist.

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    For the record: I'm not talking about forcing such an innovation on any person who visits our home. I'm talking about (eventually) making the switch for our own little family. Which, at the moment, consists of vegan me and vegan husband. I'm also not talking about throwing fecal matter in the washing machine with the towels and work shirts - but probably a set up similar to the one described in the first link posted (where the soiled clothes are temporarily stored in some type of "dirty diaper" bin, a pre-wash/rinse is performed and flushed, and then the whole shebang gets it's own load of laundry, separate from the other stuff.)

    And, yes, I understand that bf babies have a different consistency of poop than me. But that changes, even at 6-12 months when solids begin to be introduced. I assume most cloth diapering parents don't stop doing it just because baby is growing some teeth and getting interested in sweet potatoes and crackers? It's still fecal matter.
     
  10. xexon

    xexon Destroyer Of Worlds

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    The thing about adult poop is contamination over years of exposure to society. Children don't have this accumulation. They're not the biohazards as their folks are likely to be.

    This nice group of bugs is responsible for such things as herpes and TB and assorted STD's, etc. You get the idea.

    They need to be given a swift burial in an environment deadly to them.

    Compost it, you might be safe. The heat will kill it off. Washing it out in my house gives me the ickies though. How do you know something isn't growing in the drainpipe somewhere?

    Sounds like a Hitchcock thriller, don't it? :)



    x
     
  11. Donski

    Donski Member

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  12. memo

    memo Member

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  13. hummblebee

    hummblebee hipstertist.

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    Yeah, not to get farther OT here, but I'm with you memo. As near as I can tell, bottled and tap are both crap. In the interest of cutting down waste, last year I finally found a tap water filter (the kind that fits on the faucet) I like, so I use that instead. No bottles get trashed. :) For a while we kept using and refilling used bottles, but the used plastic gets funky and I get creeped out bad. Now, I mostly just use glasses around the house and I have a "Nalgene" type plastic bottle for when I leave the house. When I find one that'll be effective and I can afford, I want to replace even THAT with a glass bottle... I'm trying to cut back on all use of plastics in this house, or at least all I have control over. :)
     
  14. homeschoolmama

    homeschoolmama Senior Member

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    I agree. We got rid of my tupperware "collection" about four years ago when I was given a nice big set of Corningware for Christmas. I still have some plastic in the kitchen - but it never gets heated up & I've not missed any of it. We were considering getting metal "travel mugs" for outside of the house because I get grossed out with the reused plastic bottles too! Hadn't thought of glass, but I'm not sure that's a great idea with kids ;)

    hummblebee... what about just trying cloth for when you pee? DH wouldn't be affected then, AND you wouldn't have to deal with the really messy stuff. I'm betting he'd go for that too, and you could discuss using it more often once it's in the house & has been used for awhile. (not that I'm advocating "setting him up," but... ya know?)
    love,
    mom
     
  15. gaiabee

    gaiabee Member

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    I'm curious about the line between wasting trees and wasting water (to wash the cloth tp)? Rationalizing the extra washings of cloth diapers and cloth menstrual pads is easier since use of plastic is being avoided... and cloth napkins can easily be washed with towels to save water/energy... but for tp... I just don't know. I mean, I'd imagine cloth tp should be washed daily or at least every other day to avoid buildup of bacteria, no?
     
  16. treehuggerT

    treehuggerT Member

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    You also have to look at the resources (HOT water and electricity) to wash the cloth vs. what it takes to make paper.
     
  17. laeyne

    laeyne Member

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    ok, how do they do in india and asia, yes how do BILLIONS of asian wipe their asses?
    water... and the left hand. ok i know, we are not ready for that in the west. but there is in thailand this use of a water upward jet cleaning your ass , no need to use hands. (it does work really well) you could install one of these.
    the thing is, you have NO CLUE what the east are thinking about our shitting habits. they think that the ass cant get really clean if you smear around the SHIT, sure, you remove most of it. but NOT ALL of it, as you you would with water. with toilet paper, (or tissue,fabric) there will always be some shit left on your ass.....
     
  18. peacenikchick

    peacenikchick Member

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    wow i'd never considered that, and the more i think about it, toilet paper is a big waste, even though my family uses recycled. but i think it's a very important thing to keep some toilet paper in the house for guests.
     
  19. sengai

    sengai Member

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    I've been thinking about using a toilet cloth. I'm tired of spending money on something that is so wasteful.

    I live with flatmates though...

    Not sure how they'd react if I said "I'm no longer using TP."
     
  20. cymru_jules

    cymru_jules Member

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    As already suggested, a bidet seems to make the most sense ( these things do have names laeyne ;) ). Then you could just a sheet or two to dry yourself. As laeyne says, in principle it sounds cleaner than *ahem* smearing the stuff about behind you!

    I don't think toliet paper is *hugely* wasteful though, you need to consider the weight not the volume - because it's thin, soft and feathery it's rather low density and can be made from the lowest grade materials which would otherwise would go to waste anyway???

    There are probably other ways you can reduce waste than by tackling this, though I still think installing a bidet will sort the problem out at a stroke and provide some entertainment. ;)
     

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