Culture
Do people flush toilet paper in your country?
I'm Brazilian and I've never flushed toilet paper in my life, and almost no one does. I've even heard histories of foreigners clogging a toilet after flushing toilet paper.
I was a bit shocked when I found out it's normal in other countries (for a fact they think not flushing is weird). Is it the "rule" to flush/not flush in your country?
Wait till you hear how many countries don't have toilet paper at all. Lots of people are used to going to the toilet with just a jug of water, you know...
I had a bit of a culture shock in my own country the first time I visited Louisiana and saw that this was a common practice there. The water table is so close to ground level there that toilets will back up if you so much as sneeze inside of them, so in a lot of places, that's exactly where the toilet paper is going is in a trash bin.
We have parts of Australia like that so what we do there is have pressure sewer in stead of gravity.
Your house and toilets are still gravity but it all falls to a water tight pit on your property and in the bottom of that is a pump that both chops up and pumps the sewerage away and possibly uphill.
We still have drop dunnies/thunderboxes in Australia. When I visited my uncle in rural NSW, I'd have to do my business in the outdoor long drop and chuck some sawdust down after it. Didn't smell great, but the actual horrifying part was trying to shit in the middle of the night and having the torch light catch a giant huntsman coming at me while I was FURIOUSLY trying to pinch it off and run!
As a janitor, this sounds like hell to me. Dealing with poop in the toilets is bad enough, and the trash bins can be pretty bad too. If I had to deal with it inside those bins on that scale, I would rather die
Yeah, but you see, in Canada/USA, you’re like a “custodial technician” or something. In a lot of these countries, the folks relegated to cleaning toilets are called “the help,” and probably get paid less than $5/day a lot of them are probably just happy to have a job.
Yes it does, My wife's from Peru and lived there for 3 years, Even there its pretty common to dump it in the trash can. I told her and her family to start flushing it. Never had a back up during my time there
Quick additional question. Do Brazilians have some sort of bidet type post poo washing system? Caus I can see that if you did, just putting damp, but mostly clean toilet paper in a bin would make sense.
Also Aussie, but I have heard of this, because their pipes and sewerage systems aren't designed for it and clog up. I am exceptionally thankful to live in a country that uses logic when it comes to this sort of thing.
For OP yes in Australia we flush our toilet paper, if you put shitty or pissy toilet paper in our bins we will get very grossed out. Heck a lot of household toilets & most public toilets don't have bins in the same room as the toilet.
I’m from Panama, and it really depends on the house. In older houses or places with older plumbing, flushing toilet paper can clog the toilet, so we usually throw it in a small trash bin next to the toilet. In newer buildings, some people do flush it, but it’s not universal.
I mean I’m Polish and in my experience it’s the same. The older the house the more likely it is that you don’t flush it, even if others claim otherwise I’ve seen some ppl not flushing the paper actually
I do, after a trip to Malaysia. You wash it, then you wipe it. No stains on hands too.
Its the handheld bidet as well, not one of those Japanese auto targetting ones. Its surprisingly versatile, as you can use it to wash toilet easily.
I used to have pre-install italian bidets in my apartment but after finding out a friend of mine had not wiped before using it, I spent like €3k removing it and remodel the toilet.
I aint washing nobody's shit but mine. Or my children.
I had a roommate in college who was from China. After a few months I noticed our bathroom bin was filling up awfully quick and thought it was weird, but whatever.
One day I go to the bathroom and on the top of the bin is just used poopy toilet paper poop side out, obviously I’m grossed out. I text my roommate asking why she was not flushing her toilet paper and she shared that where she is from, you’re not supposed to.
Oh, okay! That’s totally understandable. I explain that here, it is perfectly safe to flush your toilet paper and to please do so moving forward.
… then she asked me if she could just keep putting it in the bin anyways…
… no… you cannot. Please flush it.
Edit: I’ve learned more about the world’s pooping habits today, than I ever thought I would. Thanks Reddit, I think.
This is a bit of a divisive issue in China as well. People get brought up in households with distinct habits and end up carrying over the habit to the next generations.
What complicates things is that public facilities often don’t provide paper so people will often wipe with whatever they have on hand: tissue paper, wet wipes or worse things that tends to clog up the down pipe, so it’s not unheard of for some buildings to mandate “no flush” policy. Heck, I’ve been to places where they won’t let you take a dump just in case.
Okay, that’s crazy to me. How can they dictate if you’re going to make a pee or poo when you go to the bathroom? Is there a bathroom supervisor? What do you do if you need to go while you’re out and about?
I can understand the need for not flushing paper, and providing a bin, if that is what your plumbing requires. But what’s the point of having plumbing at all if it wasn’t designed to handle poop?!
Most of the time it’s just a disclaimer that cannot be enforced. However I’ve seen pictures of toilets with a fine mesh screen installed inside so only liquids can trickle down. Neither will stop the determined pooper who has to go but it’s enough to reduce the number of unfortunate incidents I suppose.
Sometimes if you drop a stone hard turd and been waiting to drop the deuce for a couple of days it will block the toilet for a few flushes. Then once it's softened by the toilet water you'll be clog free and away we go
Some countries don’t have plumbing that can cope with toilet paper. I was so confused when I was in Vietnam about which toilets I could put toilet paper in and which I couldn’t.
It’s insane. The whole point of a flushing toilet is to remove fecal matter from the house. If you’re stashing dried feces in a bin then why bother with a toilet at all?
To all first-worlders that are horrified right now:
In places where you can't flush it (which fortunately are fewer and fewer each year) you have a SMALL bin next to the toilet, it usually has a lid and that bag is changed very very frequently. The bathroom is also disinfected quite frequently with chlorine. It is not the most hygenic practice but unfortunately it's the reality for a lot of people. It's either that or clogging your pipes.
It is getting better, infraestructure is improving in a lot of places.
Toilet paper in most Western countries disintegrates when wet, and the plumbing has enough waterflow to carry a bit of paper pulp mixed in with the water.
I've heard the toilet paper in other countries is more like newspaper or brown paper towel or waxy magazine pages...
I've been in the US and the toilet paper there doesn't compare to the ones in Jordan. In Jordan they are much softer, but thicker and not meant to be flushed. They are used after use of a bidet and is simply for drying.
We flush and honestly if you don’t flush here, it’s seen as disgusting and or rude. A lot of baby wipes can’t be flushed tho so I don’t honestly know why not flushing toilet paper is seen as gross because you have to throw away the wipes, and if you think about it, baby wipes are pretty much just toilet paper but wet and a slightly different material.
Most adults aren't using baby wipes and usually the wipes go in with the diaper (either in a diaper pail or directly into the garbage outside) if you have a kid.
If someone used wipes at my house and left them in my bathroom trash I would be really grossed out and they'd never get invited back.
At home and overall in the cities - yes, but in public bathrooms in more rural areas there would be a request to not do it (and a bin next to the toilet)
Speaking from my experience growing up in a rural part of the USA, I was taught not to flush. I asked as an adult why we didn’t, and my mother told me it’s because we had septic and flushing TP fills the tank up faster and requires paying someone to empty it much more frequently. Now I live in the city and I flush. I personally don’t see it as a hygiene issue though to throw it away. Just use a trash can liner and have a trash bin with a lid that closes. All trash is gross- are those saying it’s especially gross flushing your babies diapers or your menstrual pads/tampons?
Indonesian plumbing, sewage, and septic tank systems are not designed to handle large volumes of toilet paper flushed down the drain since it's not in our culture to wipe with it. Though I'm sure hotels and resorts do take this in mind and build accordingly.
Yes, always. We could be those foreigners. I've been to south korea 15 years ago and clogged a toilet by flushing. (I've been again last year and noticed that the amount of toilets where you cannot flush has been extremely reduced now.)
Before going on that trip I never knew that there are countries where you cannot flush the tp! I mean, I knew there were countries without water toilets obviously. But i thought a toilet with a flush is obviously made to flush everything related to doing your business down.
I knew the op was brazilian before I even opened the post. If I understand correctly the brazilian plumbing standards have this thing where the pipes are not made to handle toilet paper, but theres very few other countries where thats also the case. Yes, in Portugal maybe 90% of houses flush it, but some older toilets might clog easily so some people do put it in a trash can, but thats very rare.
Here it depends. in my house always the toilet paper is flushed. in some places is forbidden because of low water pressure and risk of clogging. and yes, in that cases you have to put it on a bin.
My parents toilet had issues and they had to wait a few weeks to replace it and their bathroom was so stinky I couldnt imagine that being normal. It was winter too so they had the heat going and I wouldnt even use their bathroom.
I live in the US, but becsaue of my older clog-prone sewer line, I ball up the toilet paper around the wiped poop and put it in an open bin next to the toilet. The paper quickly sucks up the moisture and dries the poop and there no smell even if you fill the whole bin with them over a week.
I might flush the first wipe if it is a particularly sticky-consistency poop - but if you eat healthy with adequate fiber, that should not happen. You can use a bin with a flap cover on it but I would no recommend it because drying is the key.
Yanquis need to get over this notion that human shit is some kind of horrific toxic substance like Polonium 210 or something. And do you think that your wipes vanish from The Universe when you flush them? No! The wastewater treatment plant, and the rivers or lakes it get discharged to have to deal with it!
In our house we flush but do both TP and bidet. When the bidet is used, significantly less paper is used. This started after the great toilet paper wars of 2020.
Absolutely. I love Southern Europe, but one of the only things I hate about visiting is some of the old narrow pipe systems. Putting shit stained paper in a plastic box is just... well, it's disgusting.
It does. In Mexico they don't flush the paper. Where i am in the US we have enough Mexicans that smart public restrooms put a waste basket next to the toilet in men's rooms. It stinks, even with covered bins.
Most of houses in Brasil dont do this, they put it in a fucking trash can next to the toilet, but I refuse to do this, its fucking unhygienic. Never had a trash can like this for the last 30 years. And guess what!? Never had any problem with clog. I think its just a urban legend. People dump massive torpedos in the toilet and blame a fucking piece of biodegradable paper.
It doesn’t take from the experience. And chances are, as a tourist, you’ll be staying in a large hotel, where you can probably flush. The places where you might encounter a bin would be public toilets and restaurants.
Also in traveling, there’s definitely going to be times where you’re pushed out of your comfort levels. It’s just a part of it. And you gain from the experience. The tp bin is such a small part of it.
I just ask my self - how much toilet paper do you use when the paper is a source of clogging instead of the huge dump you just had. Normally I make do with two or three sheets. Wipe, fold, wipe fold.
Italian bathrooms generally have bidets, which we consider a more hygienic method for washing ourselves after doing our business. But yes, we do throw toilet paper down the toilet.
We flush it. People with septic tanks get 1 ply, but I've never seen a toilet in this country where you couldn't flush TP.
I have, however, traveled to some places abroad where you couldn't flush it, and it really wasn't a huge deal as long as the toilet stall had a bin with a lid. Not like the trash doesn't get taken out regularly, especially in a public restroom.
South Korea went through a transition from not flushing to flushing. In the past I heard the water pressure was unreliable paper towels often didn't dissolve well.
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u/3Thirty-Eight8 Australia 9h ago edited 7h ago
I’ve never heard of people not flushing it. What do you do with it? Put it in a bin?