Yes! There Are People Who Don't Use Toilet Paper

I saw this on DailyMail and Huffington Post and have decided to share because i see it as an absolutely important topic.

Toilet paper is absolutely an essential toilet hygiene item for everybody but some see it differently; " living without toilet paper has not only saved money but it is also environmentally friendlier, since the production of toilet paper involves chemicals and the destruction of trees" 

For most  people, toilet paper is an absolutely necessary grocery list item, but some women are opting out for both economic and environmental purposes. In a  HuffPost Live discussion, some women had this to say: 

Mikala, who lives in Franklin, Idaho, and blogs for The Healthy Honeys, says: 'It is definitely possible" , "My husband and i stopped using toilet paper about a year ago, we try to use our resuable cloth toilet paper as much as possible, which is about 80 per cent of the time. When we're out of the house, however, things can get tricky. 'It's kind of hard to take it with you or it's all dirty and it's in the washing machine. 'It is almost seen as a necessity [and] it doesn't have to be, and it's been a lot of fun to learn how to do it this way."

These women say living without toilet paper has not only saved money, but it is also environmentally friendlier, since the production of toilet paper involves the destruction of thousands of trees.

What's more, the chlorine dioxide used to bleach the paper, which can be considered an environmental hazard, then gets into the sewage system and can apparently pollute the water. 

Mikala and her husband

Angela, who lives in Portland, Oregon, says she and her family gave up toilet paper for two weeks as an experiment to find new ways of 'going green'. Instead of paper, they used flannel cloths which they kept in a box by the toilet, and would put in the washing machine every two to three days, which meant they 'didn't notice any smell at all'. They found that the reusable cloth system saved them a significant amount of money; when Angela's family was using coupons to buy toilet paper, they spent about $136 a year. 

But the total cost of material, washing, detergent and water amounted to just $42 a year.

The concept may seem farfetched, but shunning toilet paper is actually the norm in some countries including India and Thailand, where the plumbing cannot handle a lot of debris.

In fact, in India, it is tradition to use water and your left hand to wipe, keeping your right hand clean for eating.

Angela Davis says living without toilet paper has not only saved money, but it is also environmentally friendlier, since the production of toilet paper involves chemicals and the destruction of trees

Kathleen, who blogs for Becoming Peculiar, uses a similar method to Angela, keeping a box of pieces of flannel - cut from a single old baby blanket - in the bathroom and washing them separately from other laundry once a week.

The mother-of-one decided to start using cloth wipes after she had her daughter and was dressing her in a cloth diaper.

'I realized, if it's not a big deal doing it on the baby, why is it such a big deal doing it with us, too,' explained the Ontario, Canada native, who has also given up shampoo as part of her 'simple living' lifestyle.

Despite their satisfaction with living toilet paper-free, all of the women say they often use traditional toilet paper when they're out, and they keep some at home for when guests visit.

'I have the regular stuff set up with the regular trash,' says Kathleen. 'Most people just go traditional, and I'm fine with that.'

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Sources: DailyMail and Huffington Post