Why Not Wet Wipes? Rethinking Standard Practice

OK, this is a bit bizarre, but bear with me. A Wet Wipe Revolution is arguing that toilet paper should be replaced with wet wipes for a more sanitary… um… existance. They argue in the original post (with 75+ comments) that you don’t wash your dirty dishes with dry paper towels, so why does that work for… um… wiping your butt (perhaps awkward is a better description than bizarre).


It’s actually a decent argument. Obviously it has some kinks (flushable wipes would be a must, and at that point I’d think a bidet-like solution would be more econically and environmentally feasible longterm), but my main complaint would be that I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick because they used dry toilet paper. Seems kind of germophobic, but it does have a certain logic to it.

All of which makes you wonder about the advent of toilet paper, which is a mostly modern invention (first rolled toilet paper appeared in 1879), and before that only for the wealthy. Yet today it seems absurd to even question toilet paper. It’s kind of intriguing that much of modern life we take for granted that way (fast food, communication, transportation, holidays, profanity, birth control, tampons, etc.). Think about that the next time you hear about something “new and different”.

Randomness from Wikipedia: In 1935 Northern Tissue advertises its toilet paper as “splinter-free.” (link via kottke.org)

2 thoughts on “Why Not Wet Wipes? Rethinking Standard Practice”

  1. I think there are “flushable” wet wipes, but when you try to flush it, it’s still not as “flushable” as you hoped it would be. You could use a bidet like this one : http://products.mercola.com/toilet-bidet/ and wet the toilet paper using that, or just simply use the bidet and use toilet paper to dry off (that is unless you have one of those high tech bidets that has a dryer)

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