To Flush or Not To Flush:

The adage of “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down” is a well-known way to save water in the bathroom. Older toilets can use between 3.5 and 5 gallons (13.2-18.9 litres) of water per flush, with some as high as 7 gallons. Newer, more efficient toilets use on average 1.6 gallons (6 litres) per flush, with ultra-efficient models only using 1.28 gallons (11.3-37.8 litres). So reducing from 4 to 2 daily flushes can save between 3 and 10 gallons of water per day. If you are concerned about the smell of urine filling the bathroom, you can add a drop of tea tree oil to the bowl, or some baking soda.
Toilets using lot of water is not new information to many people however it raises the question as to whether or not flushing toilet paper has any impact on the environment. Are there more savings than just water?

The history of toilet paper

The history of toilet paper is not a pretty one. It can be traced back to China around the 6th century. Yet in the 14th century in Europe toilet paper was only common in palaces and castles. Some Lords and Lady’s would use the paper from inexpensive books, while the more aristocratic was said to use lace.
The Romans used a “gompf stick” a sponge on the end of a stick that was kept in a container of salt water. Vikings used discarded sheep or lamb’s wool, while Hawaiians used coconut shells. Inuit would use a combination of snow and tundra moss. Colonial Americans used rags, newspaper, and sometimes corncobs – which can be considered the origin of the modern slang “cornhole.”
In the Middle East and several South East Asian countries, the practice has always been to use water to wash one’s self and to only use the left hand (Islam has a set of practices when going to the toilet and prayers to say afterwards; called Qadaa’al-Haajah). Many African and South Asian countries still use the squat toilet. These are often accompanied by a bucket of clean water or a bidet shower.
Today almost all of North America uses toilet paper and most of Europe as well. Some European countries accompany toilets with both bidets and toilet paper. In parts of Russia it is customary not to flush toilet paper down the drain and to use a bin provided. This is also a common practice in Central and South America.

Most sewage ends up either in a septic system or in a sewage treatment plant. In either case, a bacterium has to produce the organic waste to decompose the cellulose fibres that make up the toilet paper. This process releases carbon dioxide as a by-product.
If this is done in a landfill, garbage eating bacteria that do not require oxygen, take over the decomposition, which produces methane – a more noxious greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
In a sewage treatment plant, a similar process occurs to degrade solids. However degradation will happen faster in a moist environment, causing the process to emit more methane and a greater cost than landfills. However most sewage treatment plants can only degrade 95% of the toilet paper, although a remainder of 5% may not seem like a lot, this “sludge” may end up in a landfill or in a waterway.
The more paper used, the greater the water required to flush it away. Being frugal with toilet paper is another step to decreasing water waste in flushing.

So there are pros and cons to flushing and binning your wasted toilet paper. So what is the eco-answer? Well, as used tissue and toilet paper can be composted, it is possible to compost your waste. If you have a municipal Green Bin Program, the City will collect it with food waste.
To many the thought have having a bin in the washroom to collect used toilet paper seems disgusting or perhaps too drastic a step to stop 5% of sludge from entering waterway. New ideas are often met with criticism, cynicism, or doubt, as well diving in to a new idea at full speed often fails, at roughly a 50/50 success/failure rate.
If the plan is to start collecting and composting bathroom waste, the best course of action, to ensure success, is to start slowly. Start by collecting only tissues, then tissues and toilet paper with wet waste (urine), then try to collect toilet paper with solid wastes. Even if you never get to the point of collecting all waste and stick to tissues and wet paper you can help bring that 5% of sludge in the waterways and landfills down.

Other alternatives include: a composting toilet, going back to handkerchiefs and washing and re-using them, moving to a water system such as a bidet or heath faucet, or getting a toilet with a bidet built in to it.

Those who use water to wash swear by it, just the same as those who use toilet paper. What are the advantages of Water over Toilet Paper?
Water:

1. Water is more hygienic, since all the urine and poop gets washed off, leaving a clean bottom.
2. There is no poop-y smell left in the underwear. No matter how much you scrub with a toilet paper, a residual smell can be left behind.
3. With water, there is less friction against the skin. No matter how soft the toilet paper is, you still have to scrub it against your skin. Water is a boon for people who are sensitive to toilet paper.
4. If clean water is used, it reduces the inherent chances of infection that toilet paper causes when one forgets to wipe from front to back.
5. You don’t need to spend a fortune on buying toilet paper every month.
6. Too much toilet paper in the bowl can clog it, but water will not.
7. After a hard day of dusty labour, one would not feel really clean by just wiping down with a dry paper towel. A shower would do the job. Just like that, wiping poop with a dry toilet paper is not going to actually clean the area as well.
8. When a woman has given birth to a baby, especially by vaginal delivery, the doctors insist that she wash her private parts with warm water to help heal better and prevent infection. If water can keep a woman safe during the most vulnerable period of her life, then it is great for daily use.
9. When women have their monthly cycle, washing with water is recommended as most hygienic and best-practice by doctors.
10. Doctors recommend washing the genital area with water under the following circumstances, for hygiene and also to reduce the chances of infection:
• Injury from foreign body insertion
• Anal intercourse
• Sexual abuse
• Candidiasis & Balanitis
• Sexually transmitted infection
• Various genital infections in men and women
11. Pain associated with various rectal infections can be reduced, if not eliminated by practicing good hygiene. All of the below problems get aggravated by use of toilet paper instead of water.
• Rectal itching (Pruritus)
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Itching caused due to use of scented toilet paper, scented soaps and ointments (like some that contain benzocaine)
• Hemorrhoids
• Infection caused by some viruses, bacteria, fungus, yeast, etc.
• Anal Fissure
• Fistula
• Rectal Prolapse
• Prostate infection
• An abscess
• Pilonidal cyst

Toilet Paper:

1. One doesn’t have to actually touch the poop when using a toilet paper.
2. Toilet paper is easy to carry anywhere you go.
3. The toilet floors are not wet, making it easy to keep it clean.

The question then becomes where do your environmental beliefs and comfort levels blend.