【世界廁所日】黑‧洞

As I close the door behind me, my feelings of guilt and frustration was much more potent than the foul odor of the environment. It sure wasn't the first time, and as temporary as my emotions may be, it seemed to repeat too often. At every repeated incident, the silent words of the janitor reverberated between my ear drums "Ahhhh not again... what was he thinking?"

Sure I was feeling guilty for clogging up the toilet, but I was more frustrated by the incompetent toilet that couldn't even flush the "toilet paper". Though it may be a common sense for the locals, no one ever informed me the proper way of disposing the tissue in Taiwan. Sure I saw the can in the corner, sure I complained about the odor, but I refused to believe that I was the only one ignorant enough to commit such a crime and then verbally abuse the toilet.

Of course my initial reaction was to blame my ignorance on the inadequate flushing system. How can anyone design such incapable toilet? Doesn't it require the toilet to be able to flush at least eight ping pong balls to pass the flush test?

My defense to that attitude was no different than the mentality of the people in the States, where our least concern during the visit to the toilet is whether the tissue will flush down or not. But being the minority in Taiwan regarding this issue, I questioned my thinking and attempted to understand the process. Foolishly enough it took me nearly two years and countless visits the public bathrooms to figure out the main purpose of the can and comprehend the proper toilet etiquette in Taiwan. Along with that awareness, I became intrigued by the different method of disposing the tissue and decided to further understand the attitudes and behaviors between the people of Taiwan and the U.S. So here I would like to share with you my epitomized observations.

A simple act of tossing a cigarette butt into a toilet seems to be a common practice worldwide, but in the States, it's also a common practice for frivolous people to toss in the dental floss, gum, cotton swaps and even condoms into the toilet. In fact, many of us don't distinguish the difference between a toilet bowl and a trash can and some are even convinced that it's perfectly okay to flush down feminine hygiene products.

Due to more than adequate flushing toilets, such as pressure-assisted toilets that uses compressed air inside the tank to create a turbo-charged flushing action, our conscious decision of what we flush down the toilet seems to be based on the physical ability of the flushing system. In general, we tend to believe the toilet is this magical black hole that will send anything we flush down to the never-never land.

This attitude is commonly practiced by the drug deals flushing down the narcotics during the time of police raid, and reaffirmed by the headlines such as "Murderer flushed body parts down the toilet", "Wife flushes husband's penis down the drain" and as if that isn't outrageous enough, "Teenage mother attempted to flush down her newborn".

But in Taiwan, people seemed to have been toilet trained in rudimentary flushing system to understand that nothing other than human organic matter should be attempted to be flushed. Also, due to lack of highly sophisticated toilets and fear of clogging up the pipes, I reckon that no one attempts to flush down anything foreign. From my observations, people of Taiwan exercise far less criminal behavior and I cannot imagine the most extreme object they flush would be anything more than a gold fish.

As I began to further investigate the attitudes and the physical process of what we flush down the toilet, the significance of the environmental issues surrounding this subject became much more apparent. Again, some practices are universal, such as unconscious and unfriendly act of flushing down the toxic chemicals from toilet bowl cleaning supplies. But though it's clear that some of the items that are flushed will eventually end up in the ocean or on the shores, most people in the States believe that whatever they flush will be filtered and treated by sewage treatment system and then disposed properly. An example of this act is the numerous cases of people flushing down unused or expired prescription drugs and affirmed by the articles on fish caught near the coast being contaminated by them. With that same mentality, most of us don't think twice about the environmental effects of flushing the toilet. In comparison, even though the sewage recovery and waste water treatment is far less practiced in Taiwan, I sense that most people are unconscious about the environmental impact of flushing a toilet, not due to carelessness, but believing that since no one flushes any foreign objects down the toilet there is nothing to be concerned about. Of course I'm not suggesting that every person in Taiwan is environmental conscious and is committed to practicing environmental friendly acts, but after laying out my observations and comparing the differences, I question if one culture of toilet practices and expectations are better than the other.

Regardless, it was obvious that what I have adopted and practiced as normal behavior needed to be revaluated and give further consideration to the consequences of that follows flushing anything down the toilet.