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Comment by ks2048 | Hacker News Reader

ks2048

> The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population. The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year, making them No 1 for No 2s globally, just ahead of Germans, each using an average of 134 rolls annually.

Wastefulness is a national pastime.

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Those numbers sound insane to me. This is almost half a roll per day, for a single person?

Can any average american or german person comment on how this actually works? Do you wipe like 15 times per visit, or is it just a very high amount (folded?) of sheets per wipe?

Janitor comes around after business hours and changes any/every roll that isn't damn near full.

Best janitor I've experienced would replace low rolls with new and then set the low roll on top of the dispenser. Of course, the dispenser was the correct shape to allow for that

Around here, public toilets have roll holders containing 2 rolls. 2nd is unreachable, but when the 1st is empty, it falls out and 2nd drops in its place. Janitors just fill the 2nd roll if missing.

I am hoping this is normal around the world and nobody throws away slightly used rolls.

Some people unroll huge wads of paper.

The average is probably calculated as total toilet paper used / US population.

This doesn't mean than the average American uses that much paper. I believe it just means a lot of it is wasted (probably just thrown away without even using it) unsure why though

If TP gets wet, even slightly, it's unusable. Since it's designed to disintegrate upon contact with water.

Not costco's

German here. What I understand is that we Germans use the folding technique instead of crumbling the paper. And we love our sweet 4 layered paper so everything is super soft down there. I can say growing up the first years of my life in the GDR with literal recycled paper as toilet paper, that I wouldn’t go back to that. But I see especially with kids etc that we overuse toilet paper. But I can only speak for my family. Toilet paper usage etc isn’t a dinner conversation topic.

I just spent fifteen minutes to corroborate the numbers for Germany, and they appear to be a vague guess by Statista.

There don't appear to be any reliable stats or studies, which I find surprising; the few studies I could find had people use way less tp, eg https://www.radiohamburg.de/aktuelles/hamburg/Wie-scht-Hambu...

So I'm inclined to believe the 134 is hogwash; no idea if the numbers for the US are more reliable.

It comes down to how a roll is calculated. See in the US 1 material roll is not the same as 1 computed roll. In the Toilet Paper isle you see products listing their 8 roles are equillivent to 36 rolls from the other guy. So when you use 1/16 of your roll, you are really using 1/2 a roll

They assume a roll ways 90g, and just compute from that. It's a silly measurement that means nothing.

That's only about 50% more than Japan uses, and that's a country that's the most famous user of bidets.

My guess is it's absurdly bimodal. A former roommate's girlfriend managed to use an entire roll every time she visited (which was only a few hours). Everyone else I've lived with takes like a week to get through one.

Other folks talking about how rolls are measured, but I have family members who I can’t help but notice when they come to visit use an absurd amount of toilet paper. I think that, rather than using a square or two, they just pull off a bunch and wad it up.

Time to install some bidets.

Way ahead of you. I love my bidet. I highly recommend it.

I'd say poor diet and obesity result in greater toilet paper use. But we can also expect American to use more than India, for stereotypical reasons.

High fiber is supposed to be a good diet, and leads to larger/looser bowel movements.

Yes, but as someone on a high fiber diet: much less toilet paper use. The single toilet paper swipe I employ is basically for show at this point. I still do it, of course, just in case.

Well my anecdata goes in the opposite direction. Maybe it depends on the kind of fiber.

It depends on your digestive system and how you intake the fiber, too. There’s a very steep “learning curve” with fiber. If you intake too much too quick, you get the opposite of its benefits. Bloating, digestive distress, even pain. That’s why eating high fiber foods is said to make you go to the bathroom too much. They don’t… if you eat them consistently for a long time. Yes if you currently eat 2gs of fiber a day and then down a whole glass of cranberry juice, it will be unpleasant.

I slowly increased my fiber intake over the course of months. About +2g a day, raised every week.

Oh also, relatedly, fiber is not really a laxative. If you have issues with using the bathroom too much, fiber will help with that.

Are the rolls the same sizes for all countries? Both in the number of sheets and in the amount of fiber used.

If I had to guess, in order of importance:

- Americans don’t use bidets, largely. Simple water use cuts down on toilet paper significantly

- SAD (standard American diet) is awful for digestive quality. Little to no fiber = using the toilet will not be pretty

- healthcare costs. Americans with digestive issues probably just put up with it most of the time. Nobody is out here seeing a gastroenterologist because they poop more than average

Seems like the US has some really sticky shit problems going on, lol.

A lotta highly processed foods combined with most people seeming to be unaware of the impact my friend FIBER has on your poop, in terms of both stool solidity and speed of evacuation! Seriously, if you spend a lot of time going #2, adding a fiber supplement will give you most of that time back!

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