Full disclosure – I live in the United States which is considered a developed country (at least from an economic POV). And until maybe 10 years ago, the only countries I had visited for more than a few hours were also developed ones. Canada. England. Australia. Japan. France. You get the picture.
It wasn’t until we went to Cuba in 2016 that I had my first taste of a developing country (previously known as a ‘third world country.’ They don’t use that term anymore — it’s considered offensive.). And I learned pretty quickly that when you’re in a developing country, there’s a good chance you may be asked to not flush the toilet paper when you use the bathroom.
Wait, they don’t want you to flush the toilet paper?
Nope. Just bodily waste and water should be flushed.
Why not?
Very often the system that’s used isn’t made to handle toilet paper. The pipes may be very narrow and likely to clog easily. The power to rid the toilet of the waste material may not be strong enough. Bottom line is that some toilets are simply not equipped to handle anything more than human waste.
So instead of tossing the used toilet paper in the bowl, there’s typically a bin in the bathroom (or stall), within easy reach of someone sitting on the toilet (note: plastic-lined, with a cover, usually opened with a foot pedal) so they can throw the used TP in there, instead.
Doesn’t the bin stink?
The first time I came across one of these situations, I was VERY hesitant because I’m very attuned to smells and it doesn’t take a very strong scent (bodily waste, vomit, etc.) to make me want to hurl.
Granted, I didn’t stick my nose in the bin (ewwwww) but no, it didn’t stink. And I’ve experienced these types of “don’t flush the paper” toilets in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia so far, with no stink in any of them.
In what countries is this a thing?
Surprisingly (or maybe not-so-surprisingly; this IS the internet we’re talking about), there’s no list online of what countries require you to throw your used toilet paper in a bin, as opposed to flushing it down the toilet.
However, back in 2012, a website called wheredoiputhepaper.com was developed and it apparently included a map of which countries:
- Generally allowed you to flush your TP all the time
- Allowed you to flush it sometimes, depending (some toilets could handle it, some couldn’t)
- Generally asked you to throw your TP in the bin
wheredoiputthepaper.com went to internet heaven at some point and is a dead link. However in 2017, mindofahitchiker.com reproduced the map:
You can find a larger version of this map here.
To be clear, this map may or may not be 100% accurate. It was originally introduced in 2012 and reproduced by mindofahitchiker.com in 2017. Times (and plumbing) change. But even if it’s 100% correct, suffice to say that there are undoubtedly still a lot of countries (read: many areas of South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia) where flushing TP is not allowed, as well as many where you may or may not encounter a toilet where you shouldn’t throw your used TP into the toilet.
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