To Flush, or Not To Flush

I ran into this in Oaxaca.

Let's just say "force of habit" sometimes leads to some unwanted consequences.

-- Mike Beebe

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Turkey and Ukraine.

I have visited each multiple times and never heard such as a general national rule.

In some hotels in Turkey we were told by our tour guides or the hotel management that it was ok and in others it was not. Obviously it depended on the plumbing. Some restaurants also had signs indicating that it was not ok.

After Dallas manhandled the Browns, I have a new rule that I do not flush in Texas.

I'm going to Bosnia tomorrow. I guess I will find out then:)

I was in Bosnis about 6 weeks ago .... 3rd fishing trip, 4th trip .... never had a problem flushing. I will be in Montenegro next month. Also, 3rd fishing trip, 4th trip ... never had a problem flushing. Ukraine at least 7 trips ... never an issue.

Ortigia in Sicily.
We didn’t know till the (not at all good) apartment owner shouted that rule back up the stairs as she was running off to her “late for” lunch.
We arrived on time, she didn’t.
No problem, but she almost didn’t tell us at all.
We had enough plumbing problems in that apartment without potentially adding blocked toilets!

Rural Turkey is another place with bins sometimes for the tp.

I have visited Greece four times, the first time in 1985. In Athens, I was told not to flush toilet paper down the toilet, but place it in the trash can.
However, decades later, I visited, staying in a four star hotel, which had no requirement. Perhaps that hotel had a better sewage system, or perhaps Athens has improved their sewage system?

I have been to Istanbul, Ukraine and Bulgaria and stayed in five star hotels, which had no such problem flushing tissue.

Only ran into that issue in rural Peru, in the Sacred Valley near Urubamba. Just throw the paper in the bin and it got picked up every day. That’s the same town where women were washing clothes on stones in the river.

Around the world, you are not allowed to flush toilet paper in ... rural South America either.

wha? the whole entire continent? Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, French Guiana?

That's a lot of space. Maybe I'm picky but broad brush generalizations rub me the wrong way.

No flush in Greece as of May this year. Signage in almost all hotel bathrooms.

On one of my first visits to Ukraine in 1995 I stayed with my cousins in Lviv who lived in a Soviet era apartment block. They told me to throw the tp in the bin, it could not be flushed. Also, there was no water at certain times of the day.

Staying with my aunties in the village, there was nothing to flush : outhouse and squares of newspaper.

But on my more recent visits, staying in fairly new hotels in Lviv, Kyiv, Chernivtsi it was not an issue.

Well of course you cannot flash in an outhouse. Here in the US national parks and forests, where there are outhouses/pit toilets in the public facilities, there are signs “: Please do not put your trash in the toilet, it is extremely difficult to remove”. One of many examples:

https://www.unicor.gov/Product.aspx?idProduct=4053

Some people have found this so hilarious that most of the signs with the owl or Smoky the Bear have been stolen, and now they just have lettered signs with the same message. Less appealing to collectors.

The situation is different where they have flush toilets, but limited capacity in the plumbing. We have only experienced this in Chile I and Argentina, and it was a universal request/mandate in city hotels and mountain huts to place all toilet paper, etc. in the bin, not in the toilet. It is wise to observe this rule.

We've experienced this in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and SE Asia--and not just in rural areas. For instance, we encountered this in Quito, Ecuador and in Merida, Mexico---both major cities.

Nigel, you nailed it. It's the generalization.

Been to Greece, the two villas I stayed at last year had decent plumbing so flushing was fine but I've been to some restaurants where it was not.

Istanbul recently, the hotel was a Hilton and flushing was fine. Some of the restaurants were fine for flushing others not and the same goes for many other places in Europe and around the world. The general rule is that it depends.

Ran across this just this week: my 2 night stay in Klaipeda, Lithuania, in a historic building and today at Rundale Palace just across the border in Latvia.

Also Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We encountered this in Florence years ago. Our daughter took one look and stated "I don't have to go that bad", and turned around and walked out. She was 8, lol.

In Iceland, there is one visitors center that has signs all over in the bathroom that says "In Iceland we flush the toilet paper. We would appreciate it if you would do the same". The word "flush" was in bold red and then a smiley face at the end. I can only imagine what led to those signs having to be posted.

In Brazil, I experienced this outside of Rio. Luckily I had been "broken in" (nearly but not quite "broken") by the experience in Greece. It was surprising in the very new home I rented, but "when in Rome..."

Depends on how much paper you use as an individual. Sheets. A huge wad. Where are you on the sliding scale. It is all about mass. All piping is individual to the establishment also. Lack of a standard.

Hotel one, old with 3” pipe verses modern with 4” pipe. That mass has to feed down to the main which is likely larger. So hotel one says don’t flush. Hotel two says OK.
Respect the establishment and live like a local.

Two words - portable bidet. This battery operated one is tiny and it's the best. (Also good for camping.) Toto Washlet

I don't understand this at all. I can't believe that a little bit of TP won't go down when your poop will go down. The alternative is to put TP, which has poop on it, in the trash bin. What the heck??? How does that make sense?

Apparently it's because paper doesn't break down as quickly as feces.

https://www.captravelassistance.com/world-travel-trends-blog/know-before-you-go-travel-insights/where-cant-you-flush-toilet-paper/

Posted by Marty

I don't understand this at all. I can't believe that a little bit of
TP won't go down when your poop will go down. The alternative is to
put TP, which has poop on it, in the trash bin. What the heck??? How
does that make sense?

In some places they have septic tanks instead of a city sewer system. If the only contents of the septic tank is poop, pee or other bodily fluids, it doesn't need to be cleaned out. This is why some places put the used tissue in the trash instead of flushing it.

I don't understand this at all. I can't believe that a little bit of TP won't go down when your poop will go down.

Because some people don't use just a little but of toilet paper.

Okay, I get it. Thanks.

https://www.tiktok.com/@huggyattack/video/7374278661974805806

Where I live we generally don't flush. The sewer system is old and paper can cause clogs that can lead to backups.

Having a bin with a cover next to the toilet is usually the only hint needed, but in many restaurants you'll see signage asking you not to flush paper.

And all us gringos forget from time to time. Usually it's not a problem, but is it worth it to have to call a plumber when your toilet overflows? Better safe than sorry.

We have friends with a waterfront beach cabin on the South Puget Sound area of Washington State. Before they renovated the cabin you couldn't flush toilet paper. There was a bin next to the toilet along with a long stick, in case you forgot but still hadn't flushed. The stick was worse than the bin.

Whoa, Nelly. That could be a very stinky situation. It would make a great episode for Seinfeld or Larry David.

We encountered this in a few (nice) hotels in Argentina and Chile. Not the entire country, site specific due to crummy plumbing I guess.

However, decades later, I visited, staying in a four star hotel, which had no requirement. Perhaps that hotel had a better sewage system, or perhaps Athens has improved their sewage system?

It is likely a combination of both. Athens certainly has upgraded sewage lines over the years, and a modern hotel will both update its pipes and connection, but many also use equipment (think something akin to a blender) to prep the sewage for discharge. For a large business/tourist hotel it is just too hard to enforce "no flush".

As other have said, you just have to go with whatever instructions are given, sometimes an issue, sometimes not.

Currently in Ortigia, Sicily, I was surprised to see a sign/covered bin in my Airbnb toilet, but … OK … it makes sense that a place as ancient as this has old plumbing that can’t take the added stress. In three days, I’ve already forgotten once. A hard habit to break! I will admit that flushing toilet paper is one of the not-so-small things that, while I love travel, keeps me happy to live in the USA.

I stayed in a B&B in an old building in Catania, Sicily. It had some sort of noisy grinding mechanism in the waste line. It kicked in even if you just used the lavatory (wash basin). It was very disconcerting.

In Turkiye most toilets are equipped with a squirting mechanism, integral to the toilet, so the toilet paper you use ends up mostly just wet, not soiled. I don't think those toilets are as fancy as some in Japan (where I've never been)--there's a handle you must turn to activate the water jet--but they work fine until the toilet seat has to be replaced. If the new seat isn't exactly as thick as the original one, the squirting water will not hit its target.