Papel Higiénico

Most of the public restaurants with baños here appear to urge folks to put the waste toilet paper in the, yes usually overflowing, trash can... however, UNAM published this poster now prominently displayed at the INEA office here in Pátzcuaro...

We will publish the municipio's response for those interested...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Well, I look forward to the reply of the municipality.

In 2006, when we were restoring a residential ruin in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, a town with an ancient and, frankly, inadequate sewage disposal system, we went to both the architect and buliding engineer and insisted that the toilets adhere to a standard that would make it possible for us to dispose of toilet paper along with its attendant fecal matter by flushing it down the toilet simultaneously with the fecal matter. This required, in our opinion, an appropriate upgrading of a seemingly inadequate drainage syatem to deliver the waste materials to the city pipes adjacent to or home. Thank God we brought up that subject as the architect and engineer had not properly thought out the toilets with present day ventillation and drainage syatems. We demanded they upgrade the system and they did so but thank God we were at present on the project. Never remodel in Mexico or anywhere else from afar.

When I requested of the architect that he make sure that toilet drainage was sufficient to deliver toilet paper as well as feces to the main sewage pipe in the street outside our house so that we could flush the toilet paper with our bodily wastes, his response was, " Sir it is not customary for us to throw hygenic paper in the toilet here in Chiapas and if you do so this could cause a stoppage in the drainage system and this might prove most embarrassing for you."

Despite his entreaties, he upgraded our drainage delivery system to the main sewage pipe and four years later we still find that paper disappearing with all that fecal matter with nary a problem for us or the city. Bye, bye Miss American Pie.

Does it ever bother you to eat in a restaurant where the bathroom is overflowing with soiled toilet paper and realize this is the bathroom used by your chef and his/her staff while preparing your dinner?

The manager of the drainage department here, Bernardo Ramos, replies: "for a family of two, there is no problem. The tissue now produced is specially treated to more rapidly breakdown." So, TP and poop no problem, other items (feminine hygiene etc) are anathema. Pátzcuaro still has cement tile sewer lines, which are smaller and more prone to stoppage than modern day plastic, but with adequate flushing water and conservative quantities flushed, flush away.

And, you bet, the microbe count in some of the eateries I've visited had to be high! Hopefully lower on the hands of the staff.

Dave and Rosy wrote:

The manager of the drainage department here, Bernardo Ramos, replies: "for a family of two, there is no problem. The tissue now produced is specially treated to more rapidly breakdown." So, TP and poop no problem, other items (feminine hygiene etc) are anathema. Pátzcuaro still has cement tile sewer lines, which are smaller and more prone to stoppage than modern day plastic, but with adequate flushing water and conservative quantities flushed, flush away.

And, you bet, the microbe count in some of the eateries I've visited had to be high! Hopefully lower on the hands of the staff.

Thanks for that input, Dave & Rosy. We agree that only modern toilet paper manufactured to break down very quickly should ever be flushed down one´s residential toilet. When we stay in hotels with notices to dispose of toilet paper in adjacent waste baskets, we always do so to avoid embarrasment and simply as a civil courtesy to the house.

We are actually quite lucky here in today´s urban areas of Mexico to have the plumbing systems we often have. I am reminded of the old movie from the 1980s, El Norte, when two extremely poor Honduran kids found their way illegally to the United States and, at some point after arriving there after weeks of deprivation under primitive conditions, found themselves in an apartment with a flush toilet and, upon first flushing the toilet, exclaimed to each other, " Look you press the handle and the pee pee simply disappears." Well, we all have shocking cultural experiences if we travel extensively but there is one thing we all know after having been around the block a few times. I never simply "disappears".

Using a waste basket may be the one custom most difficult to adjust to, and in some cases due to plumbing concerns it is ione that must be adhered to. That is just an are of our lives that we give little thought and hve become well-conditioned to over the decades.

I have allowed myself the convenience of American-level of plumbing so continue old habits, but in some places that just won't do for the most part. Because of conditioning I personally can be lax even in the more difficult places. My step-father that entered and shook my world at its foundations at age 4 insisted whatever paperwork was necessary to accomplish the task could be handled with no more than two squares which should be doubled after the first swipe in order to make a second pass.

This process could be repeated should the situation demand but I was warned by threat of loss of hide that my paper roll was being monitored and measured and infractions would not be tolerated. In my time on my own I have allowed myself the luxury of three squares these days. For these customs and others I found no difficulty adjusting to military life though elected to make my career as a civillian in that world. Obvious though that visitors, wives, and girlfriends did not adhere to the same routine, the American ones, their Mexican counterparts have been much more adept in this manner of conservation.

I attempt not to be too concerned over this matter with other folks, however some visitors from NOB have encountered those embarrassing difficulties in some places they've visited. That they have sought guidance for such difficulties indicates it was of major concern to them. As distasteful as it is to offer counselling on such matters I would assume pales to the difficulty they must have experienced so that they would seek such counsel. Damn Americans, come here and want someone to wipe their ass for them.

My turn to really gross everyone out with a true story:

We moved to Bombay, India in 1959. Prior to the move, we were advised to ship toilet paper from the US. Since we had purchased a very large chest freezer that would normally be shipped empty, it was an ideal container in which to cram rolls of Scott TP! Since our company apartment wasn't ready for occupancy, we were stashed at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and received our introduction to India's idea of TP.

TP was essentially rectangles of wax paper that came folded in a box and not very effective at performing the task at hand. I had it explained to me when complaining about this wax paper version just how the Indians achieved the task. First one took one rectangle and folded it in half. Then folded it in half again the other direction. At the junction of the folds, one would carefully tear off the pointed corner and save the corner for later. Then the sheet would be unfolded giving you a rectangular sheet with a hole in the center. Now the important procedure - using left hand only, the middle finger was inserted through the hole. Given the brilliance of the forum members, I won't go into the exact procedure from there. But, here is a hint: the saved corner of the wax paper provides one with a method to clean out from under the finger nail of the left hand middle finger!

And that folks is the reason why it is considered bad form to handle food or eat with one's left hand!