Extract from ABC News
Updated
A regional Victorian family has gone toilet paper-free for five years, and as a result have found themselves ahead of the curve when it comes to dealing with coronavirus panic-buying.
Meg Ulman and Patrick Jones, from Daylesford, now use a squat composting toilet and 'family cloths' — reusable wipes made from flannel.
They made the change when they realised the popular toilet paper delivery service they used manufactured their rolls in China.
The flannel is from a local op shop and has been going strong for five years.
After each wipe, the cloth is put into a bucket beside the toilet — with optional eucalyptus oil — and every five days to a week, the family cloth takes a spin in a front loader washing machine at maximum heat.
After being washed, the family cloth is dried on an outdoors clothes horse.
It is just one in a series of changes the couple has made over the course of a decade, including giving up shopping at supermarkets, giving up their car, and turning off the gas at home in favour of a wood heater.
"It's to save money; it's to save resources," Ms Ulman said.
"We want to be intimately involved in our processes; everything we do we want to be intimately involved in."Ms Ulman advises families thinking about taking the plunge to family cloths to take it one step at a time to make each new habit stick.
The problems with panic buying
Toilet paper panic buying has caused a range of problems around Australia, including environmental ones.
Plumbing problems occur when newspaper, baby wipes, kitchen paper, tissues and even tea towels are flushed as alternatives to toilet paper.
Australians have been warned they could end up with faeces on the bathroom floor if sewers continued to block up.
In eastern Victoria's Gippsland region, the number of sewer blockages has tripled since February.
"When it's blocked there's nowhere for what's coming into the system to go, so it can go back up into houses so none of those scenarios are good ones," Gippsland Water managing director Sarah Cumming said.
Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak
Ms Cumming said crews were finding all sorts of things in the fatbergs they dragged up out of the sewers — including underpants.
In south-east Melbourne, water authorities are also grappling with an increase in fatbergs, due to wet wipes, cotton balls, and rags blocking sewers.
"If you must use different products in place of toilet paper, please put these in the bin instead of flushing them," South East Water general manager, customer service Terry Schubach said.
Melbourne Water's executive general manager service delivery Nerina Di Lorenzo said even so-called flushable wipes clogged up the sewerage system.
"We need to remember to be careful about what is flushed down the toilet and only flush the three Ps — poo, pee and paper," Dr Di Lorenzo said.
Your questions on coronavirus answered:
Wee wipes or 'blotters' considered extreme
Rhiannon Simmonds runs sustainability workshops in Port Macquarie in New South Wales to help people creatively reduce their household waste and carbon footprints.
She and her husband use blotters as an alternative to toilet paper.
"Blotters are a cotton wipe, about 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres wide," she said.
"We only use them for wee because we work every day and can't keep on top of the washing."
The blotters are placed in a zipper bag until they are washed.
"We use soap nuts, which are the husk of a plant, and essential oils and then we hang the blotters outside in the sun, which helps kill any bacteria," Ms Simmonds said.
Ms Simmonds said her workshops were becoming more popular as people slowly embraced sustainability within the home.
"Reusable containers, cloth bags, beeswax wraps, they're all relatively easy things you can use that are seen as kind of trendy now," she said.
But she said replacing toilet paper was considered by many as being at the extreme end of sustainability.
"A lot of people think that's a very extreme thing to do, so it is generally one of the last transitions people make," she said.However, Ms Simmonds said the COVID-19 pandemic would make it difficult to stick to sustainable practices.
"In stressful times like these, people panic and revert to old habits instead of creating new ones and take a step backwards environmentally."
No comments:
Post a Comment