> In the past half century, the number of bathrooms per person in America has doubled.
Most people who grew up in the past half-century grew up in a household with several siblings and appreciate the luxury of not waiting in line to use the toilet ^_^
>> Americans are not putting bidet toilet seats into their homes despite how cheap and easy it is.
Social proof related behavior are not changed easily, but they eventually. Despite availability of email, people were still writing letters. In longer time frame, people do adapt.
Like bananas, this is an issue of commercial and residential supply chains. Most commercial bathrooms have totally different toilet paper than home paper - thin, and on a huge roll. People are using the bathroom at home far more than before, since they’re not using it at restaurants, work or other public areas.
> The way they collect and dispose of the waste has changed dramatically over time
And?
The user interface of every toilet on the planet (except perhaps Japan) is similar enough that anyone from any other country could use one and this has been the case for the better part of 100 years.
Despite what public bathrooms might tell you about peoples abilities to use a toilet. The UX is at least the same.
> Toilets manufactured today are at least as effective as those created before the regulations
I replaced my toilet with a new model 2 years ago. Was it the best of the best, no, but neither was my old one. Use of any amount of toilet paper with the new one = a mandatory double flush, every single time. Every so often a #1 with no TP will require a double flush as well. Yes I'm serious.
>>30 person team over 5 years to design a toilet seat for a plane that will be used twice.
Talk to the carpenters and plumbers working on wealthy houses. Once you see people regularly dropping 200k+ to redo a bathroom, those government toilet seats don't seem all that extreme.
>Why is the arse the only place that, if covered in fecal matter, doesn't get the benefit of water?
Have you ever used a public toilet in the US? Put a bidet in a public toilet, someone will have gum and/or feces on the dispenser before the day is over purely out of malice.
As far as in the homes, it's a plumbing issue. You're either going to have to have to monkey with toilet feed lines yourself, which are often cheap fittings that seize and break, or call a plumber to come out or buy some tank system that requires a powered pump which has to be plugged in. Then of course learn how to use the thing. Or, you could pick up some charmin every time you go to the grocery and bathe regularly.
Americans are catching on to wet wipes, give it a few more decades and squirt-gun-butt-cleaning will catch on.
I've never seen a bidet in person. Not once in my entire life. In fact, the only time I've ever seen a bidet is in Crocodile Dundee and another film.
>We've only had indoor plumbing for the last 200 or so.
Ancient Rome had indoor plumbing. What they didn't have is an industrial manufacturing base or the scientific insight that would have made sanitation effective. Those innovations are definitely recent, and something we could lose in a generation or two.
> For most of the world, bidets are a thing an it is a curious thing as to why the toliet paper industry is so powerful in the west.
At least in America, my Grandmother's generation (great depression) grew up with outhouses. When homes were renovated to add an indoor bathroom, they were done on the cheap.
Heck pre-pandemic the idea of a bidet was crazy, I had to work hard to find one that was reliable and at a good price. Now they are super available and advertised all over the place, but when I went to get one installed 10 years ago it was not easy just finding a reliable, cold water, model! Warm water models were obscenely priced in the US.
It was likely a chicken/egg thing. Consumers didn't know about them, so no one made them for the US market, which meant the few that did exist cost an arm and a leg, so no one bothered to buy them so no one bothered to mass produce them.
On top of that, when I inquired about getting an outlet installed behind my toilet for an electric bidet, my plumber and electrician thought I was crazy!
Same question in 2021, "sure we do that all the time".
> parenthetical note, sometimes I wonder if a vacuum toilet would become available for home use, it's so effective
I've heard it said that plumbing issues dramatically increase with modern, water-efficient toilets. It's not hard to imagine why. Sewer usage and maintenance are at a far lower rate, so stool will settle and clog when ever smaller amounts of water are introduced.
I'm not sure this problem can be solved, assuming regular sewage as the method of disposal.
Exactly! What do you think a sewer system is? It it literally a subscription to having your poo taken away, by a method requiring huge capital costs, major maintenance, a monopoly operator, etc. It is a concept with lots of room for exploring alternatives.
> It is strange to me that there are two parallel systems. I imagine the commercial ones require less maintenance but are more expensive?
There's a lot more laws and regulations for the 'commercial' toilets. Eg the U-shaped open seat is mandatory for public toilets in many places in the US. It's not a choice they make for commercial considerations.
Btw, 'commercial' toilet is a bit of a misnomer: it's against the law to run a toilet business in most of the US. (Specifically paid toilets are outlawed.)
>a good shower, a well-functioning toilet, a working gas can on my car, really clean clothes, or effective and safe home sanitation.
Can you elaborate on these points. I feel like I have all of them (with the exception that I don't have a car) without doing anything environmentally illegal.
(In fact, I have specifically noticed that well designed modern toilets are far more effective than old ones that use tonnes of water.)
Most people who grew up in the past half-century grew up in a household with several siblings and appreciate the luxury of not waiting in line to use the toilet ^_^
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