So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

[Mike]

I know a thing or two about paper making and I marvel that someone has been able to market and sell "biodegradable" toilet paper.

Can anyone explain:

• Is biodegradable toilet paper more biodegradable than common toilet paper?
• If biodegradable toilet paper is better, what makes it more biodegradable?

I dunno. Seems to me that if you are in the bush and you lay down a few squares of Charmin and cover it up with a boot-kick of dirt or a fist of grasss it will be gone by the next rainfall. Maybe I'm wrong. I never went back to check.

Whataya'llknow?

[West Texan]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

My thoughts exactly... thought it all was sposed to degrade when wet... if I said that right. Otherwise, septic tanks would fill up faster... just my thoughts.

[terasec]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

I don't know about TP specifically.
But a lot of treated papers can take 1-2 years to degrade.
Even coffee filters in a compost pile can take +2 yrs.
Septics have a lot more bacteria to break things down,
Unless your adding ridex to your pit, TP will probably take +1 year to break down on its own.
Even leaves take 2 yrs to break down, if you don't rake your leaves will notice they don't go way, unless blown away.
Guess biodegradeable TP just breaks down faster

[teddybear8]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

I don't know about TP specifically.
But a lot of treated papers can take 1-2 years to degrade.
Even coffee filters in a compost pile can take +2 yrs.
Septics have a lot more bacteria to break things down,
Unless your adding ridex to your pit, TP will probably take +1 year to break down on its own.
Even leaves take 2 yrs to break down, if you don't rake your leaves will notice they don't go way, unless blown away.
Guess biodegradeable TP just breaks down faster

Hmmm good point. I've been wondering about bio degradable toilet paper for a while too and if it was just a marketing thing. What you say here makes sense.

[dave wyath]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

i may be wrong here but with all that is going on in the world, i've never been to concerned about the hazards to the environment causes by toilet paper. i think the human race has a lot more on it's plate right now.

[terasec]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

i may be wrong here but with all that is going on in the world, i've never been to concerned about the hazards to the environment causes by toilet paper. i think the human race has a lot more on it's plate right now.

It's not so much an environmental issue, more just a matter of courtesy to the next group of people.
Just like you don't like to see litter when in the woods, don't want to come across someone else's to that's out in the open

[ppine]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

Actually in places with high use and no outhouses around tp is a serious blight on the landscape. It takes a long time to decompose. Mt Whitney used to be one of the worst places.

Biodegradable tissue was invented for use in RV black water tanks. It has very short fibers that fall apart when wet. It is much easier to drain out of a tank by gravity. Backpackers would be doing the envionment a favor by using this stuff and following protocol for waste disposal.

In many parts of the world sanitation is very primitive and a serious health problem. Nepal is a good example. You can tell when you are getting near a village by the waste lying around.

[MacGyver]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

Just like you don't like to see litter when in the woods, don't want to come across someone else's to that's out in the open

I think the courtesy comes from digging a proper cat hole and burying your waste - including the paper, of course. I've been told that carrying a steel shovel is too much weight to be hauling around. My response to that is, if you can't bury it, just about* the only other proper alternative is to pack it out. And that, to me, is out of the question. I know there are environmentally sensitive areas where the rule is to pack out all waste - I've never run into one and would definitely avoid camping in such an area.

*[WARNING - A BAD VISUAL IS JUST AHEAD]

According to the book How to S*** in the Woods, there is a technique known as frosting the cake (or something to that effect). I'm not about that either!

[Bigdog57]

Re: So... what's the deal with biodegradable toilet paper

I've done some.... ah..... 'testing' of doing it the way bears do it 'in the woods'. Given the action of a good rain, the various insects and other animals that find a 'use' for it and then the bacterial breakdown, within a week or so, there is no sign that you did your doody in the woods. The key is to never do it in the same place. Let it build up, then it gets to be a real problem. Add TP and it just gets worse.
But in normal camping mode in the boonies, I use the cat hole method. A light weight plastic garden trowel works fine in my soft Florida soil.