Although not too common in America, chances are bright that you will come across a bidet in the bathroom if you are traveling through Europe, Latin America, East Asia, or the Middle East. Rendering a virtually hands free and hygienic bathroom experience, the bidet easily attaches to your existing toilet and uses water that can be pressure and temperature controlled to clean you. It is believed to be greenest way to clean yourself after answering nature’s call. Though it is beneficial for you as it uses jets of water and heated air to clean and dry your butt, this additional bathroom fixture is more advantageous for your planet as it primarily eliminates the use of paper rolls. You have to roll over to read the factual figures to be sure of its positive benefits.
Each year America uses 36.5 billions rolls of toilet paper. This means chopping down at least 15 million trees. OMG, did you ever think about all those trees when you ignorantly rolled out the paper? It also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes. The manufacturing process requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually. Also, there is the energy and materials involved in packaging and transporting the toilet paper to households across the country.
All this paper after use clogs the pipes and constitutes a significant load on the city sewer systems, and water treatment plants.
In Japan, high-tech bidets called Washlets are now the most popular electronic equipment being sold. About 60% of households have them installed. In Venezuela they are found in approximately 90% of households.
So guys, we need to move our butt and get more bidet friendly. Although the first encounter with a bidet can be a little daunting, they are actually very simple and hygienic to use.
