When Jen Kim, a Korean-American in her 20s, went to use a public restroom inside a local cafe franchise in Ilsan two years ago, she couldn’t help but notice a trash can that was overflowing with used toilet paper that emitted an unbearable odor.



“I left the stall immediately, telling myself I would rather hold it in and risk getting a urinary tract syndrome than use that bathroom,” she told The Korea Herald.



On the door of the stall, there was a sign that asked users not to flush toilet paper down the toilet.



This is a common sight in Korea where public restrooms often have such signs, along with waste bins piled high with soiled toilet paper.





A public bathroom stall in Seoul has a sign that asks users not to flush waste paper down the toilet, and to discard them in trash cans instead, as water pressure is low. (Claire Lee/The Korea Herald)

It is an occurrence that has peeved American expat Michael Hurt for a long time. The research professor at Korea University has been living in South Korea since 1994. “The practice of putting one’s wastepaper into a basket is completely unhygienic and unsanitary,” he told The Korea Herald.



“And it’s interesting that during the MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) scare recently and the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak before that, one of the (points of) emphasis became that of hygiene and reducing transmission of viruses and bacteria. But little thought was given to the fact that feces smeared all over paper sitting out in open-air containers is also pretty problematic.”



Many signs in bathroom stalls explain that the water pressure of the flushing system is low. Hence patrons are asked to toss wastepaper into a bin instead. However, according to Pyo Hye-ryeong, who heads a nongovernmental organization that advocates sanitary public bathroom facilities, water pressure is rarely a cause of clogging in public bathrooms in South Korea.



“According to our research findings, most clogging cases in public bathrooms occur because people flush random objects down the toilet, including food garbage,” said Pyo, who represents the Citizens’ Coalition for Restroom Culture. “Toilet paper manufactured nowadays rarely makes toilets clog because it dissolves in water in about 30 seconds.”



Random items clogging up the pipes include socks, leggings, used baby diapers and sanitary napkins.



Jen Kim also had a similar experience in a public bathroom inside a cafe in Ilsan, where she saw a sign that asked patrons not to flush outrageous items, including condoms and socks.



The sign in fact had actual pictures of toilets clogged with leggings and what appeared to be somebody’s pants, she said.



“Having learned that some patrons would go as far as trying to flush their pants down the toilet, I understand the logic that having people toss toilet paper into the bin lowers the risk of clogging,” said Kim.



The practice of throwing out used toilet paper into trash cans began here in the late 1980s, after the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, according to Baek Chung-yeop, an official at the Ministry of the Interior.



Before the Olympics here, nearly 70 percent of all public bathrooms in Seoul had squat toilets without plumbing systems, he said.







A public bathroom stall in Seoul with a separate trash can for used toilet paper. (The Korea Herald)