The popularity of Bidet toilet seats and showers is increasing day by day. Especially since the covid when toilet papers were almost nonexistent. This shortage helped many people try out or consider trying out bidets. Now there is a lot of misconception regarding bidets, especially if they are environment friendly or not. Let’s discuss some key factors that enforce the idea that bidets are the efficient way to clean yourself in the toilet, and it is more environmentally friendly than papers.
Reduction in Toilet Paper Usage:
On average, you use 100 rolls of toilet paper when cleaning yourself in toilets every year. If you are a regular family of 4 or 5, consumption increases significantly. The higher the quality of the paper, the more damage it can cause to the environment. This doesn’t mean by using the bidets, you will completely stop using toilet paper, but their consumption at least reduces significantly. The amount of toilet paper used depends on how much you defecate. The bidet sprays water with pressure to clean in just a few seconds. You can use toilet paper after bidet cleaning to dry.
Water Consumption:
The production of toilet paper requires 473 million gallons of water every year. This huge amount is due to the 36 billion rolls of toilet paper used every year. A bidet does use water for cleaning but not as much as toilet paper. You can even use recycled water for bidets.
This number is more understandable when considering the amount of water wasted by flushing more times than one to stop the toilet from clogging. This waste is on top of the water used for manufacturing toilet paper. The cleaning done by bidets and no waste of toilet paper makes it easier, and you can flush just once, and the job is done.
Less Plastic:
Anything you need to deliver or transport needs packaging, which involves plastic. If a single-family uses around 400 rolls each year, it amounts to millions of rolls each year for just the US alone. All this requires packaging adding to the plastic used. Even though many companies are moving towards recyclable packaging, the manufacturing process of plastic isn't that environment-friendly. In comparison, bidets are one-time manufacturing and installation, and the cost it incurs pays off due to its long life ten times over.
Carbon Footprint:
In the long run, Toilet papers have a huge carbon footprint as they are made from trees in general or pulp and recycled paper if sustainability is added. Once used, it's lost. There is no proper reusability causing it to be considered similar to fuel in concept. While initially, a single bidet might have a larger footprint, the lifecycle of bidet use is much longer than toilet papers benefiting a healthy and sustainable environment.
Finally, paper has more footprint because of how much paper we waste when cleaning. We are not efficient about it. We use way more toilet paper than is needed for a single complete clean. The bidet eliminates that, and you can now use paper only for drying purposes.