Aw, I thought that was where you were going with that…
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You forgot to add the “white hat” hacker course…
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They may often turn up in European bathrooms, but it doesn’t mean we use them.
As far as I know, the one we had at home was only ever used for washing feet (which after a long, hot, sweaty day, is a good thing).
I bought a bidet recently from Amazon on a recommendation from here. Little did I know that you need a tank type of toilet to even hook it up (I live in a 12 floor apt. complex with those odd industrial types of toilets that I’ve never quite figure out the physics of). Hey, anyone need a cheap bidet? Well, I can still at least step into the shower for a nice warm quick rinse. No extra TP needed; I have soap and a towel!!
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There is your answer:
So in a nutshell: superiority complex
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So your theory is:
- Americans associate bidets with French people
- Americans think we’re superior to the French
- Therefore Americans don’t want to wash their assholes because it would lower themselves to the level of the French, and it makes us superior to have dirty butts
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Actually no. But I like the idea.
“We have the best hygiene! The best! Trust me!”
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The article talks about the energy that goes into making TP. I have never worked in a TP factory but I know that every pulp mill generates far more electricity that it uses, often twice as much. The total electricity generated is approximately 1300 kWh/ton of pulp (please don’t ask what kind of ton(ne)). Let’s say that you need 1500kg of wood to make 900kg of pulp (1 ton) (you need more because the process extracts the water and lignin). FTA, 1.5lb of wood goes into 1 roll of TP, this means that you can get approximately 1300 rolls of TP from this ton of pulp at a cost of 1700 kWh (FTA 1.3 kWh/roll). This means that additional energy is more like 400kWh/ton or 0.3kWh/roll. Extrapolated out to the industry you get 4TWh instead of 17. Not sure if that makes a difference to anyone but overstating the case for something is really irritating.
Now, the above applies to the KRAFT pulp process which is very expensive and generates quite expensive pulp. This product is used more in premium absorbent products and is not commonly used in TP (often in diapers / towel / etc). TP is commonly composed of recycled fiber.
At that point I would ask you, what would you prefer to make out of the recycled fiber?
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And for maximum efficiency, do a hand-stand.
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Thanks for making me get off my water cleaned butt to research this! Americans alone use 7 billion rolls of toilet paper per year (citation). Personally I think it’s hard to argue that that’s justifiable, given that there’s a better alternative.
According to the EPA, if everyone in America switched from regular toilet paper to recycled paper for just one roll, we’d save 470,000 trees, 1.2 million feet of cubic landfill space, and 169 million gallons of water. That’s for just one roll.
Granted that’s for switching to recycled toilet paper and not for doing away with toilet paper completely, but it’s clear enough to me that using toilet paper is environmentally expensive, and since the alternative is actually more sanitary anyway, I’ll stick with my ass spritzer.
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I’m not saying you’re wrong that it is a more ecologically sound option. It’s not something I have used but maybe I’ll have to try it out somewhere.
At the same time it really irritates me to hear things like “Saves Water”. Do you put it in a bank? I guarantee that the water used in the manufacture of paper of any type does not come out of an aquifer. This water comes out of a river and then goes back into the river. We can talk about reducing the trace pollutants that are introduced into the water but it’s not like the river goes down.
(unlike irrigation use where the water is entirely removed from the river and evaporates).
In addition to the pollution issue you mention (I think “trace pollutants” might be understating it), there are lots of reasons to save water. Here in California for example there’s a constant tug of war between water for agriculture and the salmon fishery. It’s to the point that there’s signs next to the highway from farmers protesting how little they’re getting. That’s just one very small, specific, example, but there are literally thousands of them, and some water diverted from a river is indeed less water flowing down that river.
I don’t think as much water is returned to the river as you’re thinking, and as clean as you’re thinking, but I don’t know the specifics. Here’s an interesting article that I stumbled on. I think it’s written by the paper industry, so their rosy prognosis for the future should in my opinion be taken with a heavy grain of salt, but it gets at just how much water is used to make paper, and how polluted that water becomes:
Mind you I’m not mentioning any of this to push for using bidets, it’s just since you brought it up.
I don’t know. I think getting breathed on while some ‘action’ takes place is part of the charm.
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Someone now needs to pee in a Dyson hand dryer. For Science!
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Apres vous!
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I was thinking of being involved in more of an executive capacity…
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Every time I read: Washing Beats Wiping
It trips my brain up and I have to re-read it. :-\
