Mall owners listen up! Just put in bigger bloody pipes, stronger water pressure and better sewage handling systems! 
Wake up and smell the fecal matter! It’s disgusting! My inaugural rant is on a subject closely related to food and my intestinal tract. What goes in must definitely come out. And there is nothing more horrific than going to a nice restaurant in a relatively new mall only to go to the bathroom and be greeted with some bizarre version of this message: “Do not throw your soiled toilet paper in the bowl to prevent clogging our pipes. Please use our trash cans (that are often not lined with plastic). Thank you.†(Note: picture is not meant to offend anyone who holds cows in a high regard. Taken at a roadside meat stand in Batangas, it is my way of saying “kachunk†with slashing movement along the neck area, or “dead meat†with respect to the specific rant it is attached to. )
Good grief! Am I the only one incensed by this practice (of the last twenty years only, I note) that has spread like wildfire across the poopy metropolis? Am I so old that there are three generations after me who think it is normal to poop, wipe and dump it in the trash (pun intended)? Let’s analyze this carefully. Mall owner hires architects and engineers, they review potential human traffic through their malls, they can (or at least I can) predict the volume of caca that will go through the pipes on an average day, they know how big the pipes really should be, how much water pressure is needed to push the stuff through the system and what is needed to process the sludge before it is released to the outside world. And yet they apparently DO NOT DO WHAT IS REQUIRED and thus condone the now near universal Philippine practice of trashing the poop. Yuck is right. But perhaps they are not the only culprit. Do Filipinos use far more toilet paper than the average human who uses toilet paper? Is our toilet paper so tough that it doesn’t degrade in the water? Or do we have such massive poops that we are bound to clog even the $19 million dollar hi-tech toilets on a space shuttle? Is this the only civilized country that espouses this now widespread practice? Are we sending millions of kababayans off to Paris, New York and Stockholm who then shockingly dump their soiled tissues in the trash bins at swanky restaurants?
If I were to rent a 200 m2 space for a restaurant in a mall at close to P200,000 a month plus utilities, don’t you think I would demand flushable toilets? Just as you consume a sublime foie gras d’oie (goose liver) and your own bladder sends signals, you have to take a leak and, if female, wipe with paper and then place it in a trash bin before flushing the toilet?! This is not normal behavior!!! You do not or should not do this in your own house or the houses of friends either. No. No. No.
I NEVER FOLLOW THESE DISGUSTING INSTRUCTIONS and I always flush my paper. Clogging be damned. Haven’t they heard of Avian Flu? Or strange other diseases caused by close contact to fecal and other internal matters? Are they not concerned about the garbage handlers who will come into contact with the soiled trash? I am so incensed I am thinking of taking Green Peace type “actions†like mass pooping in a target mall where everyone flushes the paper and causes some explosive eruption of soiled toilet paper that makes it to the front pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. But seriously, this is really disgusting and somebody has to do something about it.
8 Responses
Marketman. Yeah, it is rather strange, isn’t it, that we have toilets
and then are expected to throw the paper in a bin. You are
hilarious, though, in the way you make your point! I hope
you get some health officials to read the site and understand
your drift. But then, remember, not everyone uses Charmin
and has the luxury of paper that is soft and delicate enough
for you and your toilet!! Cheerio!
Boy, have you hit the nail on the head. I ignore those signs too and always flush away my tissue. I would like to add another comment or two. First, many toilet facilities are NOT supplied with toilet tissue. Why? So what are people to use? Their hand! Proper bathroom tissue is designed to easily disintegrate. People bring in paper towels, facial tissue or anything else that is available, like a napkin. Not only is tissue thrown in the bin, but also on the floor. Bathroom here are pretty disgusting. My other pet peeve is that toilets seats are often broken and flushers do NOT work properly. Toilets should be industrial grade for heavy use. My final comment is that I have observed that 2/3 of the people using toilet facilities DO NOT wash their hands. This is appalling especially when I see this practice followed in establishments handling food. I have written off some restaurants for that very reason. Lessons in hygiene need to be taught. Perhaps cameras in bathrooms should be installed and those not washing their hand after using the toilet should be fined.
Market man don’t you have friends in the media who can
print this! Please rant you have the rights!
Great photo!
Drainage pipes are circuitous. TP (even with some water) does not move around pipe bends easily.
Uhu, for poop that “rule” would be yucky. So maybe its more for the women (for wiwi)… just to minimize TP traffic in the pipes.
I think it is time that big companies that produce consumables like toilet paper make products that are green. I too prefer to buy the septic safe toilet paper over the soft thick charmin ones…. Great Blog MarketMan!
its unhygienic to throw soiled tissue paper in the trash bin. i flush the used paper in the toilet and pray it wont cause clogging.
me too! i never throw my used toilet papers at the bin. i always flush it and same with you chris praying that it wont cause clogging. :D
MM, the problem is that locally, most buildings don’t use the proper sized pipes for the drains, hence the clogging. If you go abroad, even in the houses, they use a bigger size pipes for the drainage.