Gender Neutral Restrooms in the US

[nuduke]

morning routine is out of bed , crap, shower , breakfast.

What splendid regularity, ric!  Whilst breakfast is a similar regular routine for me the other two are not.  I shower in the evening mostly to get the day's sweat and dirt off before I go to bed.  I'm not a believer in taking whatever you have exuded or accreted during the day into bed with you and cuddling it all night.  I'd rather be clean between the sheets!  I'm in a minority though, I think.  As to the other antemeridian function, that can be any time of the day for me!

John

[John P]

My wife and I went to a concert (Boston Celtic Music Festival) at a place in Cambridge last week, and we noticed that the bathrooms were a pair of single-seaters, and one had the sign "Anyone" on the door and the other said "Everyone".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Passim

[jbeegoode]

Bluetrain: Regulation and forest management are not what you might expect in many foreign countries. The Tarahumara are losing their heritage and lifestyle to wholesale destruction of once pristine forest for toilet paper. Some of the most bio-diverse territory on the planet. It is being destroyed, and left destroyed, not managed in anyway, exploited, like huge stacks of buffalo kill and extinction. A magnificent wilderness forest with ancient trees to make toilet paper in Los Mochis! Miles and miles of balded mountain tops, like one big bad haircut on a beautiful woman. 

[jbeegoode]

morning routine is out of bed , crap, shower , breakfast.

What splendid regularity, ric!  Whilst breakfast is a similar regular routine for me the other two are not.  I shower in the evening mostly to get the day's sweat and dirt off before I go to bed.  I'm not a believer in taking whatever you have exuded or accreted during the day into bed with you and cuddling it all night.  I'd rather be clean between the sheets!  I'm in a minority though, I think.  As to the other antemeridian function, that can be any time of the day for me!

John
I think veggies and training habits have gotten me consistent and regular to get "IT" out of the way in the morning.

When out camping, it is a blessing. Digging a latrine all for not, only to have to go to extremes out on the trail is drudgery and well,... read "Shit in the Woods." Doing these things at all hours in inclement weather is also uncomfortable. "Nothing but rocks, here." "Ack, did you smell...." Now, where, how to clean up, use that precious water, on and on.

SHOWER! Shower gets me awake, right before bed. Shower gets things started, but by morning I've been shedding skin and other functions for a while. I figure that there's no escaping it. I'd rather air out naked after a shower than stuff sheets and blankets around me like clothing. I generally shower, when its time to go out and function in society, or when I'm dirty and DF is considered. When I can, I use no blankets. I love being naked and starting a new day from the get go naked feels great, liberating. It's a summer thang.
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

Bluetrain: Regulation and forest management are not what you might expect in many foreign countries. The Tarahumara are losing their heritage and lifestyle to wholesale destruction of once pristine forest for toilet paper. Some of the most bio-diverse territory on the planet. It is being destroyed, and left destroyed, not managed in anyway, exploited, like huge stacks of buffalo kill and extinction. A magnificent wilderness forest with ancient trees to make toilet paper in Los Mochis! Miles and miles of balded mountain tops, like one big bad haircut on a beautiful woman.

You should see what coal mining has done where I'm from. There was logging, too, but the trees grow back, no matter what, with no management whatsoever. Did you know we were importing lumber into the colonies before the revolution? And it wasn't for toilet paper.

[jbeegoode]

It is an ecosystem, not just a bunch of trees. In those mountains, it means flooding, erosion, other species taking over, loss of livelihood. The whole place has to readjust to get back to being old growth.

When you blade off a piece of desert here, it takes about 400 years for it to recover. Down there, in that forest, this is comparable to a major forest fire devastation, only without the natural barriers and left overs that usually sustain the system. Thing is it isn't natural like a forest fire. It is much more bio-diverse than the forests back east. It is more complex. It hasn't had the diversity cut out of it and it has adapted to different conditions. Maybe you need to visit there and get educated, or take an ecology course and ask around. Three kinds of big cats, dozens of different kinds of trees in a single plot, interactions between species, then some outfit comes in and treats it like it just a bunch of trees that will grow back, but they don't care if they grow back. The succession is crippled and has to take place again. Miles and miles of clear cutting.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

You should see what coal mining has done where I'm from. There was logging, too, but the trees grow back, no matter what, with no management whatsoever. Did you know we were importing lumber into the colonies before the revolution? And it wasn't for toilet paper.

It works both ways.   When American settlers moved west the great parries were all grass up to the Mississippi river.   Mostly that was because frequent range fires across the prairies burned until they came to the river.   Today its all forest out beyond Topika, more than 100 miles from the river. 

Despite that, Jbee is right.  The over use of paper for ass wipes is causing deforestation on a global scale.   Its also a lot less clean than a quick water wash if only we had convenient plumbing in most places. 

I would have to see data about importing lumber before the revolution.   Lumber export was a huge American industry right through the 19th century. 

As for strip mining, I have seen a reclaimed strip mine in Ohio where its now forests and camping. 


 

[BlueTrain]

The lumber that was imported was wood that didn't grow here: mahogany. There was also mining before the revolution.

I'd say the so-called paperless office uses a lot of paper, too. Those who work in offices probably consume more paper that way than in the form of toilet tissue.

This is starting to sound like something out of Mad Magazine, which once (about 60 years ago) had an article about how the world would soon be full of used razor blades and other disposable products.

[Peter S]

In view of the group interest shown in toilet paper, I offer the following report assessing the latest threat to planet Earth:

Wiped out: America's love of luxury toilet paper is destroying Canadian forests
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/01/canada-boreal-forest-toilet-paper-us-climate-change-impact-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[jbeegoode]

I use the grade A, recycled. I minimize and economize by folding again and again (I have a septic system). I wash after with a cloth using little water. Septic maintenance, local environmental pollution, save a forest AND the stuff functions better than most others, strong, yet smooth/soft, efficient.

At airports or schools, I've noticed a slippery brand that is off white. It is loaded with chemicals of some kind that creates a rash and sting with use.

Yea, I heard about Mexico's pristine forests going and the Amazon, but didn't know about Canada. When did we start using so much more toilet paper, I wonder?
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

You realize we use wood for a lot more things than toilet paper, don't you? And speaking of forests in Kansas, I've made four bus trips to the Midwest, plus another trip to the prairie in Minnesota (the part with no lakes) and didn't see any forests in any of those places. Likewise, I've been to Denver and didn't see any forests to the east of there. However, there are woods on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, although nothing like the woods on the East Coast. There have been no forests in the Midwest because it doesn't rain enough. There were grass fires, though, to be sure. Around here where I live, if you don't mow your lawn for a couple of years, there will be trees growing there before you know it. Hardwood trees are the climax species here. In the Midwest, it's grass. The original grasslands are just about all gone now.

[MartinM]

At airports or schools, I've noticed a slippery brand that is off white. It is loaded with chemicals of some kind that creates a rash and sting with use.
.....
Jbee

That sounds like the toilet paper from hell - Izal medicated. It used to be common in schools and public toilets years ago in the UK, but thankfully I haven’t come across it for years. It appears designed to spread the excrement rather than remove it while being as uncomfortable as possible. The assumption was that it was designed to discourage its use, and thus save money. In view of the comments about overuse of toilet paper in the US, that would suggest why there is a market for it there in public facilities like airports.

[BlueTrain]

If that's something they do to save money, they started at the wrong end of the scale of expenses.

Deforestation is a problem in some places but it had already happened two thousand years ago in some places. Even wild elephants contribute to deforestation. In some places, like where I live, there is even more woodland than there was a hundred years ago, chiefly because the use of land for agriculture and grazing has declined here. Imagine the amount of wood required to feed fireplaces and wood-burning stoves.

[Greenbare Woods]

We could all install a bidet, or toilet with a wash function, in our toilet rooms and stop using paper. I much prefer the washed and clean option myself.   But most people aren't likely to do that any time soon. 

[jbeegoode]

I'm on my way out to cut firewood naked in the sun. It's for the sauna for a group. Groups save the wood of separate saunas and is more fun and give extra interpersonal spiritual benefits. The wood is old wood, scrap from construction and worthless pallets. Then, the smoke will help pollute the air. We're being prudent, saving trees, and landfills. Now, then the air...seems that sometimes, ya can't win fer lossin'.
Jbee