March 26, 2014

Meet The Future: Paperless Toilets!

As you work to reduce the size of your eco footprint, there's one area of the house where you might be hesitant to say goodbye to paper--on that roll beside the toilet! But it seems there may one day be a solution to the TP problem!

The newest toilets from the company TOTO are designed to eliminate the need for paper. The toilets use water to clean from the back after you use the facilities and have an optional front cleaning spray as well.

Although this sounds like an innovative breakthrough, TOTO has been selling water cleaning toilet since the 1980s in Japan, and roughly 74 percent of Japanese households currently using them. The toilets are also popular in the Middle East and South America and are beginning to show up in homes in Europe as well.

TOTO is hoping that increased interest in paperless homes in the U.S. will present an opportunity to sell their products. There are also other solutions to the toilet paper problem on the horizon. Bambooee explained in their appearance on "Shark Tank" that they are working on a paper-free biodegradable disposable toilet paper.

1 Response

Mimi

March 30, 2014

I love those TOTO toilets, especially the ones with the heated seats. But, I don’t understand how those are considered paperless. When I was in Japan, there was always TP available to dry yourself after being squirted by the toilet. If I don’t have TP in my bathroom, then I guess I must use a clean cloth to dry myself after the TOTO squirts me. That’s a lot of clean cloths and a lot of laundry to do. I’m not sure I’m comfortable using a cloth more than once to dry myself down there. And, what about guests who visit my home? Surely, I offer them TP after they use my TOTO. Or, do I offer them small towels to use. I know that when I was in Japan, all the bathrooms I visited had TP and most of them had TOTO toilets which I absolutely fell in love with.