Excuse us while we go all Sheryl Crow on you, but we've been wondering what kind of alternatives to toilet paper there might be. We've been a bit stumped looking for statistics on how many trees are felled annually to make a product that is designed to be thrown away, but we did find these numbers, culled from the trustworthy Euromonitor report. They show that Americans use more than 50 pounds of toilet paper per year. That's almost twice as much as Europeans use.
We're not suggesting that everyone go back to corncobs and outhouses, but wider use of bidets (or bidet retrofits, like Toto's washlet) would surely help cut back on this waste. However, bidet use alone can't explain the discrepancy in use between Europe and the US: we know from experience that not every European home has a bidet. Either they use the bathroom a whole lot less than us, or our friends across the pond must just use fewer sheets to do the job. Aside from Sheryl's widely ridiculed suggestion that a law be passed to limit use to one or two squares, what else could be done to stem the flow of TP?
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
There is a growing number of people that are using cloth instead of paper. A stack of perfectly sized squares sits in a basket on the back of the toilet, and a bin (like a diaper pail) sits beside the toilet for used squares. It's really no more "gross" than cloth diapering - something I've done for years.
I won't be making the switch to cloth toilet paper anytime soon, as we're in an apartment where the laundry facilities cost $6 per wash/dry. But I can see this being a possible solution in the future. Due to our experience with cloth diapers, the squeeb factor isn't really an issue for me. ;)
I think a lot of the difference between Europe and the US may just be the 2-ply and 3ply toilet paper rolls that dominate grocery store selections.
Suggestion/Story: My partner works in a coffee shop and swiped one of their rolls of toilet paper - one of those one ply rolls that's about the same size as those you buy in the grocery stores. It lasted us over a month, which in my book is dang efficient.
The housekeeping/building maintenance staff and the student government at my alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, did a survey a year or so ago of all the one-ply rolls on the market to see which ones would be the most comfortable and affordable for the least amount of paper used. I don't know what brand/company they decided on, but if anyone's interested, you should contact them.
Back in the Islands when I was a toddler, I would do the deed in a hole and my caretaker would wipe my tush with banana leaves. I s--t you not.
There's a small part of me that's tempted to try the traditional method still used in parts of the developing world. water and your left hand. and plenty of soap after.
Then there's another part of me that's extremely squicked by this idea, and looking to continue using paper for the time being.
Oh, and I agree with kmswann above -- I don't remember exactly what the TP was like in Europe, but I have a feeling it wasn't the super-quadruple ply quilted ultra-absorbent lotion-soaked stuff Americans have become used to.
That's funny, we had the opposite experience in Europe recently. Both my husband and I noticed that we were using way less toilet paper, specifically because my MIL had that super-plush toilet paper that I never buy because it's too expensive. Then we started pondering if it would end up cheaper because we don't need nearly so much?
Ever since doing the cloth diaper thing with our kiddo, I've pondered cloth wipes for the toilet too, but we haven't taken the plunge yet. There's also a cloth wipe challenge at Crunchy Chicken that details some of the specifics about how one might about it :)
Perhaps it is the low fibre American diet that makes it necessary to use so much paper to clean up after deficating. The difference may in the feces; not the paper or method.
How about using Seventh Generation or other 100% recycled toilet paper? That way no trees are ever felled to make something that is used to wipe yr ass.
Also, it helps to create a market for recycled paper products, which, if we're actually trying to reduce impact by promoting mass change rather than coming up with the most neato idea that 99% of the population will outright ignore, is actually what we should be aiming for.
Ah, I have intestinal issues that cause me to get rather unpleasant poos (sorry for the tmi) and I use more TP than I would like to. I don't really have much choice, as far as I can tell.
Opo: how much water and soap will you waste to clean the stinky hands?
The best thing to do is exercise/train your turd cutter to produce a clean or teflon-coated poop.
http://www.lotsofjokes.com/cat_02.htm
OMG
"the most neato idea that 99% of the population will outright ignore"
Well, to be honest, a HUGE chunk of the world's population doesn't use toilet paper at all.
also, re water/soap use vs. paper use, I'd guess that more water and harsh chemicals go into making your average handful of toilet paper than would go into a thorough rinse and hand wash. And you wash your hands with soap and water after, anyway, even with paper.
About the left hand comment....that's also why using the left hand to shake with has such a taboo in the those countries, something the southpaws in our country probably wouldn't be too fond of having here (rather, come back).
Toliet paper and disposable feminine products are the two things I'd rather not have to give up entirely. I do think they could be made more green though.
discocactus -- The "right hand good, left hand bad" stigma is tied up with a lot of cultural baggage that has little to do with bathroom habits. Though this is why people in countries where TP is still not used consider touching food with the left hand absolutely taboo.
BTW, I checked, and the Marcal paper I buy from the bodega on the corner is 100% recycled. Widely available, and cheaper than 7th Generation.
The day I found two different brands of 100% recycled toilet paper in the supermarket was a very happy day indeed (For any other readers in Oz, we use either Eve or Safe).
I've had no luck with greener tissues though, so I'm going to have to make the switch to hankies. Now I just have to find some stylish ones that aren't lacy wisps for nanas...
Stringy -
A quick search on etsy.com found a vintage linen handkerchief with embroidered edges (not flowers, just hemstitching, so not too frilly) for $3, and sets of bright batik hankies for $30. Don't know how soft the batik would be on your nose, but it looks like Etsy might be a place to keep an eye on.
I've also considered adding simple colored stitching to the edges of the plain white ones I find in menswear stores, but I haven't found the time yet.
For the time being I have been using Seventh Generation bathroom tissue with postconsumer recycled content to ease my guilt.
WATER. There are a number of products available in this country (US) now and some don't even need a plumber to install some bidet-like contraption so you don't need to use your left hand. I grew up using the water method (well, a nanny did it for me when I was very very young) and at first, like the opopomax, was squicked by the thought of using toilet paper. Plain TP-cleaning just feels unclean.
I could very easily see the idea of using little terry cloths for pee and switching to TP for poop. I cloth diapered both my kids, but don't really care to wash poop cloths any more, but pee cloths wouldn't even be an issue. I'll sew up a bunch, give it a try and report back next week!
My grandmother told me that growing up in Dutch-Indonesia, they each had their own glass bottle of water to splash clean with, then their own towel/rag to dry off with.
Many stores (Walmart, Target, Big Lots, and numerous other stores - even some grocery stores) sell bundles of cotton terry-type wash cloths for no more than $3.00. I purchased such a bundle a few years back for $2.88 - there were 30 cloths. I use these as an alternative to toilet paper for "#1" and reserve TP use for "#2". Since my bladder must be the size of a walnut (thus frequent pees), this practice has cut down tremendously on my TP usage (at least 75%, if not more), and that makes me feel better that I am taking a constructive step toward environmental conservation. When I launder I just throw the cloths in with the normal/heavy wash items - works just fine. These cloths last for years (much like the old-fashioned cotton baby diapers) and are a good size for the purpose. I live alone, but can't see why a system can't be set up for multi-person households. As far as I'm concerned, the great satisfaction of outwitting corporations that deplete resources for one-use items, then have the gall to downsize their product while pumping up the price to the consumer 50% to 100% over the course of a year or two vastly outweighs any perceived inconvenience to the consumer. As a society we have become grossly addicted to the products marketed to us by irresponsible, greedy, and destructive corporations through a lot of clever marketing and mass bombardment advertising strategies. Think about it - what did people use in place of toilet paper centuries and millenia ago? We need to break out of the consumer mindset by which we have been programmed to function. "Going green" needs to include a certain amount of rebelling against corporations who thrive on environmental destruction. Hit them where it hurts - in the pocketbook.
Okay, okay, I hear you - enough of my preaching. To close, I'll mention another advantage of using cloths: I had found some toilet paper to be harsh (I wonder what chemicals were in that stuff), whereas my skin has never been irritated by the cotton washcloths.
Happy loo time, everyone!!
My husband is from Iran and there they used only water for cleansing in a watering can type of thing. After we had our son we received a diaper sprayer from a family member to help us in cleaning up soiled cloth diapers. We found this had other uses as well and has been a wonderful replacement for TP. We also made cloth wipes for our son, that can be great for drying ourselves off afterward.
Check this out ... http://emmanuelkariuki.hubpages.com/hub/Green-Leaves-as-an-Alternative-to-Toilet-Paper