Here’s a toilet puzzle for you: Why don’t toilets in Brazil flush as efficiently as those in the United States and Canada? In Brazil it’s pretty standard to have a waste paper basket beside the toilet for throwing away toilet paper. Hotels and restaurants will have signs asking you to not flush toilet paper. In the USA and Canada nobody worries about flushing toilet paper.
The answer to this question is not obvious. Even luxurious toilets in expensive hotels do not flush as nicely as in Canada/US. It’s not a cultural or environmental thing to not flush toilet paper —- toilets really do get clogged very easily and getting rid of the toilet paper might take multiple flushes. I’ve seen Brazilian toilets that pass a lot of water per flush but still don’t work well.
My current theories are that either Brazil uses narrower diameter drain pipes or that they have a more elongated P-trap than in the US and Canada. Someday I hope to run into a master plumber who’s worked in both Brazil and North America to tell me what the difference is.
EDIT: The Quora link below says that the same problem happens in Mexico because the Y-fitting under the toilet doesn’t have graceful curves compared to US fittings and/or the drain is not sufficiently vented, so the toilet water flows slower. Both of these also sound like plausible theories.
People don't realize how much maintenance sewers need. Technicians go spelunking all the time to unclog. It is a massive cost and it's further abused with things like "flushable" wipes which don't exist.
Throwing toilet paper in a basket and taking it through the garbage route is a very sensible solution.
>[..] an enormous “fatberg” was discovered in the sewers under London. A hellish fifteen-ton lump of cooking fat, congealed with diapers, wet wipes, sanitary towels, and condoms. In videos taken by sewer workers the thing crawls over the walls and ceilings of the grand Victorian drain, its tendrils puffing out from the monumental central mass. A mound of fat the size of a London bus, glistening death-pale in the torchlight; fungal, a saprophage, its terrible bulk blocking off the normal hygienic flows of piss and shit. It took three weeks for the utility company Thames Water to fully repair the drains.
>Throwing toilet paper in a basket and taking it through the garbage route is a very sensible solution.
Have you lived where this is commonplace for any length of time? Have you done this in your own house? Having been born in a country where this was commonplace a few decades ago, I have a very hard time accepting it as a "sensible solution". It's just gross. I'd much rather pay for spelunking through my property taxes.
Yes I have. It happens to be somewhere where bidets are universal, so the resulting tp isn't so gross.
Surely you can pay for your own staff to clean the toilets. You're asking for infrastructure overhaul for what should be a waste basket with a lid emptied daily.
Surely I can pay for my own anything that my city provides through my taxes, including roads and safe drinking water. I live in a place where I don't, and I like it that way. I much prefer it to dirt tracks and wells. Others may not place such a high value in that. Too bad, they also have to pay property taxes.
I have, and I live in the US and continue to do so. The small bin doesn't seem to smell, and is easy to tie the bag and toss it in the trash bin. I haven't had to unclog a toilet in years.
I put roughly as much credence in that statement as I would a smoker's that he doesn't really smell like smoke, or a dog owner's that his house doesn't really smell that doggy — i.e., none. I don't mean that rudely; I just don't think you notice the odour.
Sure, that may be the cause. My theory has been that the paper to wet matter ratio is high in the paper direction, causing a wicking effect that dries the bin contents quickly.
> People don't realize how much maintenance sewers need.
What can do about it? I think that education is at fault. Most people in big cities does not realize how costly and important are jobs like sewer maintenance, garbage collectors, signal maintenance, gardeners, etc.
Without all this work cities will paralyze, the population will get sick or die, transport will stop working. etc. Without that work civilization instead of flourishing with economic growth and technology it literally will crumble into ruin.
Cities work because there is an absurdly large amount of people taking care of them. If it was a private endeavor there will be advertisements about their work everywhere. But, as a public service it is almost invisible. That is a shame.
That is pretty much any utility that has high reliability numbers. Same goes with electricity, road work, water, trains, phone service, internet, cell service, etc.
> Throwing toilet paper in a basket and taking it through the garbage route is a very sensible solution
Except most places I've been to and seen the practice have an open basket, I've never seen any soiled toilet paper in them and not entirely sure I'd like to...
Toilet paper isn't the most optimal solution for home use. It is what's been used for millennia but Japanese on-toilet bidets are superior. (American companies have noticed, and have stayed manufacturing their own.) There is an adjustment period, but (and I am not a professional plumber) without the semi-solid waste, I think it would also be better for our sewers.
Cheap toilet paper from wood pulp is only about 150 years old. Before then there was not a lot of spare paper around. Woodpulp paper can be made quickly biodegradable.
> People don't realize how much maintenance sewers need.
I think about this in relation to modern society often these days. So much of the machinations that keep things running are invisible to the daily user.
This doesn't need a master plumber to answer the question. This occurs in a lot of the developing world. Older sewerage systems weren't designed to accommodate the stuff we flush down in the west.
Aside from older toilets that don't have the water flow design of contemporary systems that were designed to accept paper + waste, blockages down stream effect the flow of toilets upstream.
No, even toilets in new buildings don’t flush well. I mentioned that I’ve seen toilets that pass a great deal of water—-more than is typical in the US and Canada—-and still can’t get rid of a bundle of toilet paper. Blockages downstream may or may not happen, but that’s irrelevant to my question because the toilets do flush, the water leaves immediately (implying that the drain pipe is clear and nothing is backed up from downstream), but the waste and paper don’t leave as quickly. The problem has to be something at or near the toilet. As I said, I suspect narrower drain pipes or deeper and longer P-traps.
That's interesting and you do wonder why these countries don't have better standards its not like work hasn't been done on this.
I used to work in hydrodynamics R&D (BHRA / BHR Group) and I shared an office with an engineer who had a project to analyse the UK's toilet designs and come up with design guidance for more efficient designs.
It was interesting to listen in on the call to the plumbing supplies company when he wanted to buy a couple of hundred toilets but instead of 200 of one type he wanted 2 of every model they had.
I did look at Computer vison / ML for this project, to measure flushing efficieny - but it was to expensive
It's not the just sewers though - because I've been to plenty of places that run on a private septic system serving a single building or a few buildings, and the rule is the same: no flushing the paper.
I have been told it's because of smaller diameter pipes.
I don't know about Brazil, but American toilets leave a lot to be desired too, in Australia plungers aren't common like they seem to be in America (apologies for BuzzFeed source): https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/youre-talkin-shit
As a Central/Northern European I noticed the same thing when spending a few months in North America. Particularly the "low-flow" toilets in the US & Canada which seem to be considered an improvement(?) have a ludicrously small outflow.
I noticed my Australian roommate uses a ass-load (sorry) more toilet paper than I do. Since he's moved in we'll go through a 12 pack in less than 2 months. By myself that would take me at least a year to kill.
Not just Brazil. Same story in South Korea (Seoul specifically I remember) and much of Thailand. My understanding is that the sewage infrastructure can't handle it. Those are fairly old cities, even if the building is new, it eventually drains into something that may be hundreds of years old.
The sewers in Seoul are definitely not hundreds of years old; most of them were built after the Korean War.
The subway authority in Seoul had some research done when they were preparing to get rid of wastebaskets in their public bathrooms a couple of years ago. They found that the plumbing infrastructure is more than capable of handling normal amounts of toilet paper, even in older stations. But clogs happen when the paper gets tangled up with wet wipes, feminine hygiene products, and miscellaneous items such as pens and phones (yes, phones!) that are either accidentally or deliberately dropped in the toilet.
When the subway authority and other large institutions did eventually get rid of the wastebaskets (they're smelly nuisances at best and biohazard at worst), the change was accompanied by a massive awareness campaign to discourage throwing foreign objects in the toilet. Separate receptacles for feminine hygiene products were added to women's bathrooms. There were some hiccups at first, but I think the change has been well received for the most part.
tl;dr: Paper is not the problem. A widespread habit of throwing foreign objects in the toilet is.
Many restaurants in North American cities have reminders that these should be thrown in the trash.
Then there's a co-worker's situation in his townhouse / condo development: some people, who are probably new immigrants don't know the rules of the road, have to be informed not to flush chicken carcasses down the toilet. Just put it in the green bin and it will be picked up with-in the week:
To be honest, leaving a bin containing chicken carcasses outdoors for up to one week in 90'F heat isn't exactly a sensible thing to do, either. Those immigrants might have come from a place where the toilet doubles as the compost. So many things that we take for granted aren't obvious at all to people from other parts of the world.
I'm in Toronto, and we get that kind of heat somewhat regularly, and the green bins haven't been a problem. It's the reason why they're picked up every week (garbage and recycling alternates).
They still use toilet paper to dry the after effect. Yes some of them have driers, but usually it's not nearly enough to dry in time. No, wet underwear and pants is not a solution.
Toilet paper is also different from country to country. In Argentina most toilet paper is very thin, and as a result people uses a lot more. Maybe it is the same in Brazil.
> In Argentina most toilet paper is very thin, and as a result people uses a lot more.
This is no different than the false economy of single-ply in North America: you end up using the same mass (volume?), you just have to have more pulls.
While not a topic I have quizzed many people on, I would hazard to guess that most folks want a certain thickness for their wipes. With two-ply you can achieve that with x revolutions of the roll, while with single-ply most people simply do 2x.
I'm not quite sure if single-ply really saves anything.
So for Argentina, are people really using more, or simply doing more pulls to reach the same thickness as the thicker-papered Americans?
It's hard to say. First we have bidets in most households, so people uses lots of toilet paper to get dry after usage. Second, Argentina has a bad economy so people tends to go for the cheapest.
Pardon the interruption... I've been scratching my head over a similar query. What if you want to get OSM/OVERPASS to show all toilets within 1km of a navigation route (i.e. 1km from any point along the path). Is this even possible?
As far as I know Nigel Farage wants out of the economic, political, etc European Union, not out of the geographical continent. By the way, parts of Turkey and Russia are also in Europe.
Toilets, along with a few other plumbing fixtures, have a "UI" that has not changed much for over a century. While the details may be different, I doubt anyone wouldn't know how to use this toilet if they were suddenly transported back in time to the 1920s:
The bathtub or sink would equally be unlikely to puzzle, and remain very familiar. Yet in the software industry, it seems very common to drastically alter the UI in a timescale of only a few years to even months, confusing basically the entire userbase. As software becomes more ubiquitous and relied upon, one wonders if it will ever attain the same levels of UX stability that many other inventions have gained over the years.
On some you press the big section for the big flush, on others you have to press the big and small, sometimes the half flush is the bigger "default" button and others can be confusing with nested levels of depressions to mark them. Throw in no directional standard like the half flush being on the left and the whole things one big (pardon the pun) crap shoot.
Smell problems aside, how do you transport the compost away from the toilet?
Expecting people to shovel their shit is almost reasonable in a setting where you live in a house with a yard and could actually use the compost, but what about an apartment building, or a high rise office building?
I really like the idea of using grey water to flush toilets, which at least takes 1 level of water cleaning out of the equation. I used one of those toilets that fills the tank after you flush, through a tap that drains into the tank. You washed your hands while the tank filled and eventually flushed. It was pretty neat.
> Smell problems aside, how do you transport the compost away from the toilet?
The Night Soilman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil) or dunny man in Australia would come and collect it once a week. It really wasn't that long ago in some parts, Brisbane Australia had them until the 70's and it's still within living memory of much of the developed world. In many older cities you'll still see little lane ways between rows of houses that were used to give the carts access to the outhouse, most have been converted to footpaths/bikepaths these days.
I wouldn't want to go back because the smell in the summer heat was legendary, but flushing toilets are incredibly recent.
In centuries past, night soil was used as fertilizer and there was a business case for collecting it. Today, human waste is avoided as fertilizer for a number of reasons (hormones and other medication residues, pathogens), and so there is no more business case for collecting it. One would have to advocate solid waste collection as a new public utility, and that might be an uphill battle.
I haven't read the article yet, so apologies if this is covered, but the new Bloomberg office in London has vacuum toilets, like on an aeroplane, which don't use any clean water:
I'm interested in full time RV living and some people change their toilet for compost ones, and then turn their black tank (toilet flushes) into a extra grey tank (sink, shower water... Washer or dishwasher if you have a fancy rig with it)
Was watching and reading about them, but not sure If I'd like them... Someone kept a spray bottle to help clean the inside after each use if messy inside (think poop or maybe period blood).
Then there's a little fan that is sorta like a PC fan... but was reading somewhere someone's went out and their RV got invaded by fruit flies!
I like the idea of saving water when boondocking, but seems like some huge cons.
Right, people have very different diets, more or less natural, some have many parasites, or are on some drugs, so their fecal matter are much less easy to process.
But there are already problems with traces of drugs in tap water, so it can't be that bad, there are many things like mushrooms, or bacteria at a smaller scale, capable to recycle toxicity
It is not a bad idea per se, just harder to do vs. non-human waste composting. Temperatures have to be more tightly regulated and obviously the handling of the raw waste carries an increased risk for workers but it is not working with dynamite levels of risk, it is relatively safe.
You seem to be more knowledgeable on the matter than me, do you know how long parasitic worm eggs or protozoan cysts need to compost in the worst case before ceasing to be viable?
I am far from an expert, but for biodegradation you need bacteria, earthworms, etc.; which would die, too, if you killed the harmful worms and bacteria; meaning you would need to mix in other ones. That whole process of killing almost everything and then colonizing again seems like quite an overhead.
Sure but you really do not need that high temperatures, you get enough heat in a humanure compost (aerobic and active) to kill the common pathogens dangerous for humans.
Septic systems need a fair amount of water with the waste to work correctly - more than one flush worth. (washing hands, showering, and other water uses more than makes up the difference)
They are used to mask the sound of you doing business. Some play music and some play the sound of running water. I personally don't care for that particular feature, but Japan produces the best toilets in the world. If I ever own a home, I'll import a top of the line Toto.
haha, I been watching travel videos and was thinking about toilets in different countries. Was thinking of making a site like this, as kinda more of a joke but also interesting.
I think squatting down to potty just seems different and nasty. Plus elder people and people with disabilities a challenge too probably for them. Seen something that somewhere in China some place have like stalls with a trough running though you squat over. So you are squatting to take a poop while someone else's waste is going under you. Better not fall!
Didn't know some places had porcelain toilets with the seats removed. Then some places in the world don't use toilet paper, but their left hand and water.
Didn't know Japan had squat toilets too, I always envisioned the high tech ones being everywhere. I think Japan has the coolest toilets though out of any place, seems like a product Apple would of designed.
Also something that surprised me in Europe they have toilets you pay to use, which I guess encourages them to be cleaner... but someone from the US used to free bathrooms at pretty much any retail store.
I want to travel the world someday when the money is there, and one of the things that is discouraging. Plus being a super picky eater. But want to go see the pyramids, great wall of China and stuff you've always seen on TV. I know there's some world cruises, even some advertising as a circumnavigation cruise of the earth so probably be more of my style of travel. Board a huge boat somewhere in the US, and spend half a year non stop seeing things and then back. No long flights, delays, limited new food choices, etc.
The US used to have pay toilets - 1970s or so. There were taken out because they were not popular for several reasons. Men's urinals were free, which meant women were discriminated against. People did crawl under the door to avoid the cost. People didn't always have the correct cash with them. Turns out the cost of buying and servicing the pay box used up most of the money collected. People didn't like them and wrote letters to their congressman about it. People changed their habits to find free toilets. People "wet their pants" elsewhere causing a larger cleanup problem. All in all they didn't last long.
> Didn't know Japan had squat toilets too, I always envisioned the high tech ones being everywhere.
It's a really bizarre mix in my experience. You get the high end with a heated seat, even in a random road-side shop. Unless you don't, and then there's no seat at all. There are some "standard" toilets as well, but I've mostly seen either one of the extremes.
Took deliberate effort (training, even) but I got over this. I can't eat just anything (nothing with bones I'm expected to crunch on, or a clear face, please—I can do [love, even!] fish skin-on and could probably manage with the head on too but I won't eat the head, ya know?) but I can eat all kinds of "weird crap" that sure, lots of Americans will eat, but many (most in some cases?) think is super-gross. Calamari, those little whole octopi, all kinds of sushi including some of the weirder ones, most any stinky cheese, beef marrow. Just about whatever. Haven't done bugs yet but could probably manage. And that's just the notable stuff I'm up to, go back far enough and I wouldn't eat most "normal" food either!
What I basically do is just shut off the part of my brain that was judging stuff as it went in my mouth. Probably people are picky for all kinds of reasons, but in my case, it was that. I was really picky. Now, I'm fine, but I still have to consciously repress it when trying some new things (if it's good, and most things are, it's much easier to have it again). Possibly some time working on Stoic non-judging helped make this easier, dunno.
It seems to be much easier when I'm out of my ordinary surroundings. With one or more other people, out at a restaurant, while traveling is ideal, though any of those helps. I don't prepare "weird" food myself for a first try, though I will prepare most "normal" things that I used to not be able to eat—was very picky, I'm telling you.
Still not sold on Mexican food of the smothered-in-melty-cheese variety, or pretty much any casserole, but I reckon I've earned a couple quirks so I'm not worried about getting over those. I'm never gonna be a big-hunk-of-oven-roast-or-crockpotted-meat fan like big hams or thanksgiving turkey, I've decided, though I can make myself eat it to be polite (couldn't before).
Was watching some travel videos, not sure if what's available or just their tastes. I know some people love to try tons of new foods too as part of the experience.
Knowing me I'd probably go halfway around the globe and visit McDonald's for some McNuggets. I know Egypt has them. but I wonder about the language barrier when ordering too... I think in some touristy areas though at least one worker would know some English as a pretty common language.
But I guess at the end of the day get back to your ship with your room, same toilet, etc. However, I wonder if world cruises change up their menu as they sail or if the buffet would always have similar food... I'd think a cruise leaving America and returning for half a year would probably still serve up some American styled food while in China for example... but I think they might also offer some more local styled dishes.
Maybe someday if I get lucky in tech as those types of cruises cost about the price of a new luxury car. I know through a half a year cruise, probably a lot of Visas and I think you need a yellow fever vaccine depending on the ports. but I guess if you have that kind of money to go on one, probably someone to advice you. But I've never been a cruise anyways, so probably go on a few ones around the Caribbean, Bahamas, Mexico as that is pretty common from the US. Also interested in an Alaska, Canadian New England ones first to see how I like them... and then if going on a world cruise check out the same line on a shorter cruise once or twice before committing to something that huge. Be like a once in a lifetime experience though. There's even some that go to Antarctica. Mediterranean ones in Europe. Also seen some that go around Washington State, Oregon and California too.
Always been interested in cruises and traveling more though, but feel like it'd be the perfect style of travel. I think if I hit it big I'd probably just sail full time for a few years, then RV across the US. Be an interesting alternative lifestyle. I know my family is against this idea though, but I think it's because people judge small little snippets of what they see on TV. Sure bad parts of Mexico and crime, but I think if you stick to touristy areas and be careful you'd be alright. So much fear mongering on television.
Speaking of television. I remember when the travel channel used to actually be about travel. Now it's just back to back marathons of ghost hunting shows it seems.
I did a lot of travelling in Europe earlier in the year, and had McDonald's in a lot of different cities in different countries. What really helped were the automatic digital kiosks that you can just order from (without talking to a cashier). They had the official languages of the country, plus always English as an option so you'd always be able to use the machine. You get assigned a number and then just wait for your number to pop up - no conversation at all except a little thank you when you pick up your food.
I'm also really interested in renting an RV and just driving across the US. Seems like a relaxed way to travel.
For example, France has some of the best public toilets I have ever seen. Go in, do your job, and press the button. 30 seconds later, everything is flushed and cleaned automatically, and the toilet automatically opens for the next person.
In some of the long term hikes, there are pedal toilets. Do your thing, and "flush" it down by doing a small cycle movement. There is a mechanism to move your gift down the toilet without using any water.
If you are worried about left hand and water, you will be pleasantly surprised when you see butt guns. It's a bidet shower that sprays water and you don't have to use your hands. I grew up in Sri Lanka, where we have them everywhere (in addition to toilet papers), and I personally got them fixed in the bathroom when I moved.
When I was in China it took a bit of getting used to but I actually quite liked the squat toilets.
They just seemed much more hygienic and easier to clean.
For a squat toilet you limit the amount you have to touch anything as you just hover over a hole in the floor and because there is a hole in the floor the whole room can be sprayed down and flushed away.
The worst thing to get used to is putting all the used toilet paper in the bin.
Interesting tidbit - in Ancient Greece shops and traders collected human and animal urine as it has ammonium salts, essential for scouring and cleaning wool.
The China section is missing the “trough in the ground” squatting toilets. A single trough has water flowing in it washing everyone's poops down the stalls and you can see it all under you as you squat.
The cubicles aren't really covered by the website, but I'm always struck by how little privacy is afforded by the dividing walls in toilets in the USA.
I don't understand it either, and it's not just us. I guess after WhatsApp + Facebook merged, there were also some cross-company clashes about that too -
"Some [Facebook] employees even took issue with WhatsApp’s desks, which were a holdover from the Mountain View location and larger than the standard desks in the Facebook offices. WhatsApp also negotiated for nicer bathrooms, with doors that reach the floor..."
Why a company paying their people tons of money won't spend a bit on the bathroom doors that reach the floor, I do not understand.
I read once that one reason is ADA compliance. Having a gap under the partitions allows space for the toes of wheelchair users to navigate, so the stalls may be smaller. DDG turns up this plumbing blog post which lists that among other non-obvious reasons: https://onepointpartitions.com/why-are-bathroom-stalls-not-t...
Do public restrooms in the US typically have stalls for handicapped people? That would require two to be built (one for each gender). Contrast that with building a completely separate restroom - you can only build one, and you can still have a smaller footprint on the "regular" stalls.
Yeah but why doesn't it go to the ceiling? I don't want to make eye contact with my pooping neighborhood when we both stand up. And, the smaller issue, why are there gaps around the door?
I've brought this up at my workplace as well and it isn't a budget issue in the US, it's mostly a lack of creativity or follow through from your office management team. Because more private, both in height and gap, doors aren't common in the US contractors aren't used to installing them and suppliers don't commonly carry them.
You can find them at suppliers in major cities but you have to rely on the persistence of your office managers to track them down and spend time on something that most people don't rally around or bring up in discussions. The compromise in my office was rubber strips that cover the gaps found in normal stall doors, those are easily bought and installed by anybody.
Lack of standards for stall doors (its probably not in the code so anything goes and I suspect if the door is closer to the floor it needs a more precise (expensive) installation.
Lack of code is also probably the cause of the randomness of urinal heights.
I've never visited the US, so I'm curious about what you mean. Is it the fact that they are thin and have nothing above and under? Because that's how they are here in Italy as well, at least in certain train stations, on highways and other high usage places.
Most toilets in Italy are NOT that way (source: I am Italian), but rather they go floor to ceiling. I live in San Francisco now, and most toilets in the US cover only the middle space (open at the floor and ceiling).
I think he's taking about how the stall door doesn't overlap the walls. Instead it is next to the walls and there is a significant (5 mm maybe) gap that lets you see into the stall. No it makes no sense.
I think it's just like that because that's just how it has been traditionally done in America. Their toilets are also a different shape - much wider, lower and shallower. And urinals always have flush handles.
I haven't actually seen many newer urinals with flush handles. Pretty much anywhere with a recent install is sensor based.
There's plenty of old equipment around, of course.
Toilets are more hit or miss, though I'd hazard a guess that the majority of new installs are also all motion / sensor based. I can't speak to the bowl differences, though I'd suspect they're due to water efficiency, disabilities compliance and / or our heftier girth.
I wonder why ODing is not a problem in rest of the world. If I were to guess it's to save money and not becuase they were concerned about some random dude ODing.
Not sure about the super-high gap ones, but I'd bet the normal-gap (mid shin, maybe?) ones make cleaning a lot easier. A semi-permanent pre-fab wall especially is probably gonna have a lot of gross little nooks & crannies at floor level. Also means you don't need to match the walls to the room height, which probably makes them a lot cheaper.
I mean, imagine mopping one of those rooms. Bet you'd immediately be glad the partitions didn't reach the floor.
It's a special case, but the Shard skyscraper [0] in London has male toilets on its 75th floor (approx) where the urinals are pedestals mounted in front of a clear glass wall looking over the city below. It's an awesome view!
What I found strange was how much water was in the bowl of US toilets. It's nearly impossible not to experience a splash, the level is so high. I've even been in toilets here where I had to take measures not to have my genitals end up dipping in it.
My favourite experiences have been in Germany and China, where typically most of the bowl is comprised of a dry "receptacle" which is then flushed with water into a smaller pipe opening.
All toilets I met also have a front side of bowl too sloped/close to you know what. I have to constantly use one of my hands to prevent a collision, which can be pretty terrifying depending on where you are. This problem must be widespread, since I’m not really that guy.
The water makes it less likely for waste to stick to the dry surface and accumulate, and also reduces odour. Splashing is more of an unfortunate side-effect of that design choice.
I've even been in toilets here where I had to take measures not to have my genitals end up dipping in it.
But you have less chance of skid marks with the American type, hence they don't need a brush next to the toilet. If you'd ever find yourself brushing at the house of a date you've been invited to, you'll quickly prefer the American ones.
The open space at the floor is about ease of mopping. In many places all the bathroom stalls are effectively hung from the ceiling, so there is a continuous tiled floor with a single drain. This is to make it faster to mop up.
It's probably because we don't want to employ more than one janitor to mop up.
That doesn't answer the question about the vertical gap between the doors (more invasive in my opinion). I've seen totally normal white collar office buildings with large gaps which the workers have covered with toilet paper, fabric, cardboard, etc. The makeshift seal was there for months (still there when I left the company).
Why is this a solution that needs jerry-rigged solutions instead of a normal solution like everywhere else in an office building?
Is it just me or are these gaps getting larger? I travel to the US a couple of times a year for 15 years and it seems that way to me.
It's disturbing that the probability is quite high that whilst searching for a vacant cubicle, your eyes may well lock with the single enlarged eye of a terrified pooper. This is not a bond I want to make.
Yeah I never understood it either, it's very simple to have the components overlap. You don't need to worry about additional parts or tolerances or anything like that. Everything stays the same but the arrangement changes.
Panel gaps are just a feature of installation and manufacturing irregularities. You’re often drilling into concrete and people just don’t know what they’re doing. Better too loose (big gap) than too tight (door doesn’t close, need to re-drill the holes) is the thinking.
You can install the doors properly with no gap, but it requires everything be square and plumb and all that. And then not get damaged.
The huge gap under the door looks like it might be to discourage people from having sex in the cubicles. However, I'm not sure why that would be more of a worry in the USA than elsewhere.
Where I work you can easily tell the occupied stalls from the presence of people's feet at the bottom. Except for the ADA stall. You have to glance at it through the mirror as you enter the bathroom to get the right angle to determine if occupied. All full? Turn around and try another floor.
That's really a function of cost and building owners being cheap. I have seen very nice stalls in the US, but I'm sure it was more expensive and everyones just kinda used to the status quo so nobody pushes back against it.
I have been in poorer bits of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Pacific islands.
The USA is (so far) the only place¹ where there were gaps between the door and the "wall" of the toilet cubicle partitions. This is surely more expensive -- it requires special hinges to provide the gap. In other countries, "cheap" might mean a 2mm gap. In the USA, it's an intentional 2cm gap.
There is some other reason. I'm not American. I genuinely don't know if I should admire it (lack of shame of bodily functions), or criticize it (afford less privacy to those who use public toilets).
¹ [There are places where there are no stalls at all.]
I think it's to shame people into not using public toilets, as a disincentive, and at best to get people to leave as soon as possible. There are health consequences to pushing.
Yeah the toilets in a Nordstrom are pretty much stock UK grade no gaps for pervs to look around the door..
Another difference not mentioned above is double-doors. Toilets in public/institutional buildings in the UK (and probably elsewhere) have an air-lock type arrangement with two doors (inner and outer) with the result that nobody can see into the inner sanctum when people enter and leave. US toilets have just one door.
Can you elaborate? Urinals or troughs without any sort of divider at all aren't uncommon (especially at sports venues) so I'm having trouble picturing what could be even less...
I don't understand how much more privacy your looking for. It's not like people can look in on you. Are you worried someone is going to hear you poop and find out that you're a person who poops?
I'm tall, and I can literally make eye contact with the guy in the next stall if we both stand up. Not my idea of a good place for small talk, or even a head nod. I usually just bend my back. It's quite ridiculous. Then there are the gaps around the door, like why.
Dual flush toilets are extremely common in the united states. I haven't seen a toilet installed in the last 5+ years that isn't dual flush.
That said, the Australian style flush is pretty different than most of the toilets I see in the US. I was in a hotel in Boulder CO and thought my toilet flushed pretty weird, so I googled the brand (Caroma) and fell into a rabbit hole of toilet information.
The one in that hotel regularly required two flushes to clear my waste, so I'm not sure I really buy the advantages of the Australian style vs the siphon flush I'm used too.
Are these not used basically everywhere now? Most new installations in Ireland seem to use one, and the not-super-up-to-date (has an analog-in TV!) French hotel room I’m in at the moment has one.
The answer to this question is not obvious. Even luxurious toilets in expensive hotels do not flush as nicely as in Canada/US. It’s not a cultural or environmental thing to not flush toilet paper —- toilets really do get clogged very easily and getting rid of the toilet paper might take multiple flushes. I’ve seen Brazilian toilets that pass a lot of water per flush but still don’t work well.
My current theories are that either Brazil uses narrower diameter drain pipes or that they have a more elongated P-trap than in the US and Canada. Someday I hope to run into a master plumber who’s worked in both Brazil and North America to tell me what the difference is.
EDIT: The Quora link below says that the same problem happens in Mexico because the Y-fitting under the toilet doesn’t have graceful curves compared to US fittings and/or the drain is not sufficiently vented, so the toilet water flows slower. Both of these also sound like plausible theories.