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Bidets don't involve dead trees, require less ongoing transportation, and run concurrently with the costs associated with plumbing in general. The better questi
by robbedpeter 5y ago
Bidets don't involve dead trees, require less ongoing transportation, and run concurrently with the costs associated with plumbing in general. The better question would be: what could use and installation of a bidet possibly involve that would make its impact greater than ongoing use of toilet paper? It's a toilet gadget, probably comparable to the plumbing in the toilet tank in terms of maintenance and durability. So a single bidet installation is likely good for 5 to 7 years.
5 years of toilet paper means about 500 rolls per person. A family of 4 would use 2000 rolls so about 400 kg of paper. The cost to transport, produce, package, and dispose of that much toilet paper is clearly higher by the end of the device's life.
- joe__f 5y agoYes, you've made the same argument as the article, estimating the impact of producing the toilet paper but not that of producing the bidet. What is the impact of acquiring (mining?) the ceramic and metal parts, and then manufacturing these into a bidet and fixings? I think it's likely that the impact of the bidet is lower by the end of its lifetime, but an argument which says, 'manufacturing and installing a bidet has a similar impact to producing x rolls of toilet paper, and so after y years then the bidet can be considered better for the environment' would be much more compelling to me because it doesn't look like it's trying to hide half of the argument