I made a little something after encountering a clogged-up toilet and a hostel cleaner who looked frustrated. Perhaps you never even considered your toilet paper’s destiny… but should you flush the toilet paper? I made a cool flowchart to help you determine whether to bin it or flush it! Follow these easy steps:
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But really. Clogged toilets and sewage systems are a huge problem in many parts of the world – and the traveler isn’t helping the cause. I’ve met a few travelers who were proud to announce they would straight up refuse to bin their used toilet paper when there was a sign kindly asking them not to. They thought not flushing it was gross to put it in a bin, and that was that.
Especially in Latin America, there are written signs in the stalls to kindly ask you to not flush the paper, but not always. Many people think that the absence of a sign means you can flush the paper, but really, it doesn’t. Get into the habit of binning the paper as soon as possible upon arrival at your destination. It’s really just a matter of flipping a switch in your head, but it will go a long way. Being a ‘responsible traveler’ means more than just not disrupting communities, it also means not disrupting people’s (sometimes basic) infrastructure.
Toilet Paper Flushing World Map
So you don’t like my flowchart? Well, then I went and did the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s work and made a world map using the data of Where do I put the Paper? to give you an overview. Conclusion: flushing toilet paper is rare, very rare.
I think I finally found a topic for my university thesis…
To clarify: the green countries would have you flush the paper, red forbid it, in orange countries it highly depends on where you are and icy blue ones don’t have data. Note that this map is purely based on the info provided by the aforementioned website. If the information is lacking/wrong, you’d have to tell the creator Matt Kitson too! Also, Matt, we should drink a beer.
A Little Backstory
In my 3.5 years of being on the road, I’ve spent about 2.5 of them in regions where you don’t flush used paper. Already upon arrival in South America, I knew I had to flip that switch in my head. Of about 500 days of travel in South America, I must have spent about 45 days around dysfunctional toilets, of which the far majority was located in some form of tourist accommodation like a hostel where the toilets have to endure a lot of traffic – more than in hotels. In about 90% of hostels is a sign in each stall asking you not to flush the toilet paper. Every time I saw unflushed toilet paper floating in the bowl where it shouldn’t, I was in a hostel.
Once, only once, have I been to a place in Latin America where the stall had a sign on it “PLEASE FLUSH THE TOILET PAPER, DON’T PUT IT IN THE BIN”. That was in a luxury café called Refugio de Navegantes in Dalcahue, Chiloé Archipelago, Chile – far far away not on any particular route. Everything looked a little futuristic. I had to read the sign three times before I understood its message. I was a little shocked. Then I flushed it all.
Then there are the countries where people wash not wipe. Some of them give you the choice between toilet paper and water (Argentina and Uruguay), others don’t provide paper and expect you to follow suit by washing. I remember childhood trips to France and laughing at the funny thing in the bathroom which my mom explained was a “butt washer”. I never fully grasped the anatomy and function of a bidet until I googled it in fucking 2016.
On a short trip to Morocco in 2012, I encountered my first “hose” (a.k.a. “bum gun”). On my travels through Iran in 2014 I really learned the way of the hose in combo with squat toilets. This time there was really no way around it, but as an 8-year-old vacationing in rural France with my parents, I cried every time the only option was a squat toilet. Toilet paper can be a tough find in some places, but I always carry some backup paper with me.
Where I’m from we always flush everything away through our fancy seat-toilets without a care. For 19 years of my life, I had never seen a clogged toilet in my Passport Nation. Their toilets are resilient and their flushes are powerful. That was until I started studying, lived in a shared amenities apartment and the yearly carnival happened. Some visitor tried flushing the unflushable and we all had to suffer the consequences. The next day someone came by to fix it.
Back to Latin America, the situation is a lot more fragile over here. I’ve noticed that it takes up a lot of mental space if I can’t just assume I can go to the baño anytime I please. The planning involved takes away the ability to relax about a basic bodily function. I know I’ll never take a functioning toilet for granted again.
Do you want this infographic on your blog/website and spread the word?
Feel free to do so, but please link back to my website. A little credit goes a long way! 🙂
If you want stuff to be real simple, just copy this snippet and paste it into your website’s text editor. Easy peasy!
<a href="https://mindofahitchhiker.com/should-you-flush-the-toilet-paper-a-flowchart/" target="_blank"><img src="https://mindofahitchhiker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/flushing-flowchart.png" alt="Should you flush the toilet paper"></a><p>Find out more at <a href="https://mindofahitchhiker.com/should-you-flush-the-toilet-paper-a-flowchart/" target="_blank">mindofahitchhiker.com</a></p>
Also, if you want to use the map on this website, please link back to this article!
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Great article, I pinned it. It’s also pretty funny, great job 🙂
Thank you so much! Happy you enjoyed it 🙂
This is actually a great post! Good job Iris!
This is SO handy! Haha, you never know how important is to know about toilet paper until you arrive to a foreign country and you get in troubles with the hotel’s concierge! Thanks!
Yeah it’s like a walk of shame to the cleaning folks, telling them “I’m so, so sorry. I did wrong. Please forgive me” with big puppy eyes. Never again! 😉
I am from Colombia and here we flush our toilet paper.
I really don’t want to dispute your lived experience since you’re from Colombia, so I’m curious as to where you lived that you could always flush the toilet paper? I spent 5 months in Colombia and my experience was that almost everywhere the toilet paper needed binning, not flushing. Almost every time I trusted the toilet to flush it in one go, it would just not do it and threaten to clog it up.
Flushing toilet paper can cause your septic system to fill up prematurely. This will lead to increased maintenance/pumping costs, more loading on waste water pollution plants, and ultimately more strain on the environment. Please don’t flush your toilet paper no matter where you are!
That’s a very good point! I hope one day the bidet/hose system will become more prominent. It creates less waste and pollution and it bypasses all the liters of water being used to just create a roll of toilet paper. Washing is definitely better than wiping. I wish more people/countries would make the switch!
This information is incorrect. I have lived my entire life in Seychelles and have never once put the paper in a bin or seen a sign here asking me to do so. The only sign you will ever see in a toilet will be to ask ladies to dispose of sanitary products in bins.
Thank you for the map! Really helped me!
That’s great to hear!