I just completed a month-long experiment: instead of showering with soap and water, I cleaned my body every day with paper towels.
Just kidding! I have done no such experiment. But what if I told you that billions of us do this daily with the dirtiest part of our bodies, i.e., our arseholes? Instead of thoroughly washing our derrières with water, we wipe them with toilet paper (TP).1
Using TP isn’t great for personal hygiene. But did you know it can also cause other problems? We may not realize it, but by using TP, we are not only harming ourselves but also our planet.
Ourselves
Health
As mentioned, wiping with TP is not an effective cleaning method. If you flinched when I mentioned swapping showers for paper towels, then you get it. The Cleveland Clinic concurs by saying, “bidets can arguably be considered more sanitary than traditional cleaning methods.” This is not only because water is more effective than TP at removing trace amounts of doo-doo from our bums, but also because using TP puts us at risk of getting poop on our hands or nails.2
But the health concerns go beyond hygiene. Many chemicals in TP can harm our health, including:
PFAS may increase cancer risk, weaken the immune system, and cause developmental delays in kids.6 Animal studies show BPA acts as an endocrine disruptor.7 Canada, Europe, Sweden, and the US have banned BPA in many children’s products.8 Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen.9 Clearly, there are several concerning elements to TP that should not be anywhere near our rears.
Admittedly, some scientists claim that the doses of these chemicals in TP are too small to harm us.10 But I personally don’t think it’s worth risking my health, even slightly, to continue using an ineffective cleaning method that most of us never use.11
Money
What if I told you that switching to a bidet is not only good for our booties, but also our bank accounts? In the US, the average person spends $182 each year on TP.12 Over 60 years of adulthood, that adds up to about $11,000! A basic bidet attachment costs about $80 - $120.13 If you cut your TP use by at least 50% after getting one, you could save thousands. That’s an excellent return for a one-time cost of around $100.
Our World
Choosing TP over a bidet might only seem to affect us personally, but it actually impacts other beings and the environment.
Other Beings
TP may not be vegan. Many TP brands use gelatin from animal bones and stearic acid from animal fat to glue TP fibers together.14 Some brands may even test chemical agents used to soften TP, like bleach and formaldehyde, on animals.15
TP may not be vegan.
In addition to harming domesticated animals, TP production also harms wild animals. TP companies chop down 712 million trees each year to meet global demand.16 That’s enough to fill a forest the size of Northern Ireland.17 This logging happens in places like the Sumatran rainforest in Indonesia and the boreal forest in Canada. This habitat destruction endangers many species, including the Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant18, and boreal caribou.19 Sadly, the damage doesn’t stop there.
The Environment
The chemicals mentioned above also find their way into our ecosystems. After we flush TP down our toilets, it disintegrates into the water. Later, after undergoing some sludge digestion processes, this wastewater is dehydrated, and what’s left is known as biosolids. These biosolids go to one of three places: land application (as fertilizer), landfilling, or incineration.20 In each case, harmful chemicals in TP don’t just vanish. They find their way back into our environment. With land application, they get into our food system. With landfilling, they can leach into the soil and our waterways. With incineration, they can get into our air.
The water usage of TP production is also massive. It takes over 5,000 gallons to produce the amount of TP one person uses in a year. If you used a bidet instead, then water usage would have been less than 200 gallons that year.21 This is an over 95% efficiency gain! For context, 5,000 gallons is the amount of water the average person might drink over the course of 36 years.22
If you were to switch to a non-electric bidet,23 you could cut down the massive amounts of electricity used to produce TP. Globally, we use about 40 terawatt hours of electricity each year to meet TP demand.24 That’s more than Denmark’s total annual electricity use in 2023.25
TP production emits 38 million metric tons of CO₂ per year due to energy use and deforestation. This number is greater than the total amount of CO₂ emitted by Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 2023 combined.26
Wrapping Up
By switching to a bidet, we can help ourselves and our planet. Small actions can have significant impacts. Until I started researching for this blog post, I never realized that my TP habit in America was harming caribou in Canada.
Of course, it’s not as if one person switching to a bidet is going to save all the caribou. You might wonder: “Do my small actions as an individual really matter in the face of big global issues?”
I think this is a fair question, and here’s my reply:
A man is walking along a beach covered with thousands of starfish that have been washed ashore and are dying in the sun. He comes across a young person picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. The man asks, "Why are you doing this? There are thousands of starfish here - you can't possibly make a difference." The young person picks up another starfish, throws it back into the sea, and replies, "It made a difference to that one."27
So while we as individuals may be incapable of saving all the caribou, maybe it’s worth it to switch to a bidet just to save one? Plus, if we make the switch, our asses will be cleaner and our wallets will be fatter.
Our asses will be cleaner and our wallets will be fatter.
Considerations
How you use and maintain a bidet matters. Some studies suggest that women using bidets may have “aggravated vaginal microflora.”28 This seems linked to improper technique. It’s crucial to wash from front to back to avoid introducing fecal matter into the vagina. Also, it’s vital to clean your bidet often. Bacteria can grow on the nozzle.29 An electric bidet with a self-cleaning nozzle can cut down maintenance, but it will not eliminate it. As long as you use and maintain your bidet properly, you should not have any issues.
I’ve been using a Toto Washlet for about a year now, and I love it! If you have any questions for me, feel free to add a comment below or contact me through my website here. I hope you’ll consider giving bidets a try!
To close, I’ll leave you with the following haiku:
Tomorrow, you shit.
Water sprays, your bung hole clean.
Caribou keeps home.
Admittedly, most of us shower regularly, so we would clean any gunk left around the anus then.
Source that shows PFAS present in TP: American Chemical Society, “Toilet paper is an unexpected source of PFAS in wastewater, study says,” 2023. Link here.
Source that shows BPA present in TP: Dresden University of Technology, “Bisphenol A contamination of wastepaper, cellulose and recycled paper products,” 2004. Link here. Below is a key part of the abstract:
With one exception, all xenoestrogens studied were determined in all toilet paper samples at very high concentrations of 2 – 430 mg/kg dry mass (dm). The concentration of BPA in toilet paper amounted to 3.2 mg/kg dm, 45.5 mg/kg dm and 46.1 mg/kg dm.
Source that shows formaldehyde present in TP: Canadian Family Physician, “Chronic vulvar irritation: could toilet paper be the culprit?” 2010. Link here.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “Human Exposure: PFAS Information for Clinicians - 2024,” 2024. Link here.
Study Finds, “Average American spends over $11K on toilet paper over a lifetime — enough to buy a Rolex!” 2020. Link here.
Angi, “How Much Does a Bidet Cost? [2025 Data]” 2025. Link here. Scroll down to the “Types of Bidets” section.
Bim Bam Boo, “So...Vegan Toilet Paper Is a Thing? The Best Cruelty-Free TP for your Plant-Based Bum,” 2020. Link here.
If we assume trees are 15 feet apart in a grid, one acre will have 194 trees (see table on page 3).
712 million trees ÷ 194 trees per acre = 3,670,103 acres. After converting to metric units, we have 14,853 square kilometers. This is larger than Northern Ireland’s total area of 14,330 square kilometers.
World Wildlife Fund, “Don’t Flush Tiger Forests: Toilet Paper, U.S. Supermarkets and the Destruction of Indonesia’s Last Tiger Habitats,” 2012. Link here. See the executive summary on page 5. I have included the second and fourth paragraphs.
Second paragraph:
Since 1985, Sumatra has lost more than half of its forest cover, leaving less than 31 million acres. With only about 400 Sumatran tigers and fewer than 2,800 Sumatran elephants left in the wild, this last remaining habitat is critical to the survival of these species. The pulp and paper and palm oil industries account for the vast majority of deforestation in Sumatra.
Fourth paragraph:
We found that two brands sold in the United States―Paseo and Livi―are made with paper from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which is responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company. Paseo is a retail brand of toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue, and it is now the fastest growing brand of toilet paper in the United States, according to its marketer. Paseo and a sister brand, Livi, are also sold as “away-from-home” products to hotels, restaurants and other places with public facilities.
Stand.earth, “‘Nature’s calling’ and she wants toilet paper brand Charmin to stop destroying boreal forest and caribou habitat,” 2019. Link here.
The average person uses 141 rolls of TP every year. Each roll takes 37 gallons of water to make. This means the average person uses:
141 rolls X 37 gallons per roll = 5,217 gallons annually in TP.
Assuming a bidet uses 1/8th of a gallon per use, and a person uses their bidet four times daily, that totals 1/2 a gallon daily. Over the course of a year, this amounts to 182.5 gallons.
Assuming the average person needs 6 cups of water a day (3/8 of a gallon). 5,000 gallons ÷ 3/8 gallon per day = 13,333 days. 13,333 days ÷ 365 days per year = 36.5 years.
I specify non-electric bidets as opposed to including electric bidets too because there is some nuance involved. If your electric bidet is inefficient and you live in an area with a predominantly fossil fuel grid, your carbon footprint might be similar to or worse than someone who only uses TP. If you have an energy-efficient electric bidet, rely on a cleaner energy grid, and cut down on TP, you’ll likely have a smaller carbon footprint.
If annual global TP production is 42 million tons, and if it takes around 950 kilowatt hours(kWh) of electricity to make one ton, then:
42,000,000 tons X 950 kWh/ton = 39,900,000,000 kWh.
This converted to terawatt hours (TWh) is 39.9 TWh.
Danish Utility Regulator, “The Danish Electricity and Natural Gas Markets 2023,” 2023. Link here. Here is the relevant part from page 7:
For the Danish wholesale electricity market, consumption increased slightly in 2023 compared to 2022. The total consumption was 36.1 TWh which is an increase of 1.7 pct. compared to 2022.
Global annual TP production takes 39.9 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity, as noted in footnote 24. Assuming the average kilowatt hour (kWh) globally produces around 473 grams of CO₂ (gCO₂) (this measure is known as “global grid intensity”), this means:
39.9 TWh = 39,900,000,000 kWh
39,900,000,000 kWh X 473 gCO₂/kWh = 18,872,700,000,000 gCO₂
18,872,700,000,000 gCO₂ converted to metric megatons (Mt), where one megaton is 1,000,000 metric tons, is 18.87 MtCO₂. So, from electricity usage alone, global annual TP production releases 18.87 MtCO₂.
Now, let’s account for CO₂ emissions caused by deforestation:
If 3.8 MtCO₂ is released each year from clear-cutting the boreal forest for TP used by the US, and assuming that the US consumes 20% of global TP produced, then we can estimate that:
3.8 MtCO₂ X 5 = 19 MtCO₂
This roughly estimates the global CO₂ emissions of deforestation for TP. I use “rough” because it ignores the TP made from sustainable tree farms, bamboo, or recycled paper. It also ignores TP used by the US from non-Canadian sources.
So, 18.87 MtCO₂ from electricity use and 19 MtCO₂ from deforestation mean that global annual TP production emits around:
18.87 MtCO₂ + 19 MtCO₂ = 37.87 MtCO₂
The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research reports that for 2023, Nicaragua emitted 20.63 MtCO₂ and Costa Rica emitted 16.47 MtCO₂. Combined, this is 37.1 MtCO₂.
Wikipedia, “The Star Thrower,” 2025. Link here. Anthropic’s Claude AI generated the block quote.