Get a Guarantee to Get Some Bidet Systems in North Torrey Pines Living Learning Community

By Senator Daniel Juarez for Marshall

Project Description

Bidets vs. Toilet Paper

Bidets are a plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the genitalia, perineum, inner buttocks, and anus of the human body. It may be located next to the toilet in the toilet room. Fixtures that combine a toilet seat with an electronic bidet are also available on the market. They are currently very popular in in Southern Europe, especially in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, with 97% of Italian households having bidets. They are very popular, if not standard, in France, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, and Greece.

You might be wondering why this is a project I want to work on. For one, if you are concerned about sustainability and conservation of resources, bidets are your dream come true. Justin Thomas, editor of metaefficient.com, estimates that "Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper every year, representing the pulping of some 15 million trees... This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching.” He adds that manufacturing requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually and that significant amounts of energy and materials are used in packaging and in transportation to retail outlets" (Earth Talks Bidets - Scientific American). Additionally, BioLife Technologies, the manufacturer of several high-end bidet systems, says that bidets use generally 1/8 of a gallon per use, whereas toilets use 4 gallons per flush (Earth Talks Bidets - Scientific American). Therefore, the amount is inconsequential, especially in the face of just how much water we use to produce toilet paper in the United States. 

If you are concerned about health, research demonstrates that, number one, there is no link between anal infections or rashes and bidet use; in fact, people with those infections use bidets more probably because bidets help them wash those affected areas better than they could with toilet paper (Bidet toilet use and incidence of... by Kiuchi, Asakura, Nakano, Omae).

Bidets are a resource-efficient, sustainable, and healthy opportunity for UC San Diego to take a step forward. That's why this is one of my projects.

Project Goals

  1. Check California and Federal Law to ensure that the installed bidet systems are closely in line with standards.
  2. Discuss options with various companies, get quotes, and decide which bidet option would best suit a new initiative at UCSD.
  3. Create a proposal for Housing, Dining, and Hospitality Administration including research, sources on why they should start the initiative of installing some bidets in the new North Torrey Pines Living Learning Community. Number of bidet systems to be proposed would be probably around 5-10.
  4. Connect HDH to companies to facilitate early negotiations.
  5. Check in on the project every few months.