No, we are not going to discuss whether you should put your toilet in the living room of your Case Study House; I just love that Kohler ad. I also love bidet toilets and have one, and wrote about it in Why I spent $1200 on a toilet seat and why you should too.

But now Umbra at Grist looks at the problem and adds new information to the mix, including the surprising fact that more and more adults are using an adult form of baby-wipes on their bottoms. She points to a Bloomberg article that describes what a problem this is:

In fact, when you go to the website of the Association of the Non-Woven Fabrics Industry (because there is an association for everything!) that these are “broadly defined as sheet or web structures bonded together by entangling fiber or filaments (and by perforating films) mechanically, thermally, or chemically. They are flat, porous sheets that are made directly from separate fibers or from molten plastic or plastic film.” Cotton is also used for a more absorbent wipe.

Over at Gawker, John Cook was as appalled to learn about this trend as I was, and also at how common the practice was.

Alas, the study of The Future of Flushable Wipes to 2020 is behind a $ 6,500 paywall but appears to be a $ 2.5 billion dollar market that is growing every year.

© Dude Products

There is even a brand specifically for men, “used as an adjunct to toilet paper in the bathroom or as a wipe for faces, armpits, or any other area of the body” These are 44 square inches or 2.75 times the area of a standard toilet paper square and far thicker, and they come individually wrapped so there is also all that packaging waste too. In their marketing they suggest that it be used as well as toilet paper, and say that they “break apart when flushed”.

Lloyd Alter/ toto toilet with washlet/CC BY 2.0

Which brings us back to the question of bidets. If it is no longer a choice between toilet paper and a bidet but we also seeing a trend toward expensive (30 cents each!) barely flushable plastic and cotton individually wrapped adult wipes, then seriously people, get the damn bidet toilet seat. It uses less water than is used making toilet paper, and who knows how much it saves compared to the stupid dude wipes.

Seriously, if you can afford 30 cents per wipe you will pay off a $1200 Toto Washlet or a $ 6,000 Numi pretty quickly and your bottom will be even cleaner and softer. And I am really curious what percentage of our readers actually do use adult wipes.