When shit hits the fan, Americans have a tendency to turn to toilet paper. It’s one of those items that you never want to be caught without — especially in an emergency — which is why it became a hot commodity as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Even when we’re not in a state of collective panic, being without TP can trigger a minor personal crisis. Most Americans are entirely reliant on toilet paper to do their clean up after using the bathroom and don't have an alternative available when the roll runs out — unless they add a bidet, which uses a stream of water to clean your backside after you've done your business, to their toilets. With the Earth in climate crisis mode and fears of more pandemic hoarding and supply chain issues lingering, it’s certainly a good time to ask: Are bidets worth it?
In the toilet paper vs. bidet debate, the former has some serious environmental disadvantages. All that toilet paper we employ to deal with waste is pretty wasteful itself. The average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper each day and nearly 160 rolls of the stuff over the course of a year. That tissue doesn’t exist in a vacuum, either. It all comes from and goes somewhere.
