"RV" toilet paper - myth busted

Does it really matter how much the toilet paper 'breaks down' in a RV tank?

It's a holding tank.

I use septic safe paper and have never had a problem with clogging, etc..

It either gets dumped in a septic system or a municipal sewer system.

Are we over thinking this? :)

Last fall I was cleaning out my tanks at home. As a final conclusion, I rinsed out my sewer hose in the grass near where my camper is parked. When I flushed out the hose, everything appeared to be OK, no problem, nothing unusual.

Next morning I went out and where I'd flushed out the hose, there was a thin white layer of toilet paper on the ground, covering every blade of grass like hardened snow!

My conclusion, (first it was not RV toilet paper), but my conclusion, "dissolving" is a hoax idea and bogus. Toilet paper does not dissolve, it breaks down into minuscule fibers that are eventually washed away, or put back into the ground where, like all paper, will eventually decay and become worm food. But right out of the holding tank? No, it's not dissolved, it's simply broken down.

Try THIS experiment? Leave the TP in a glass jar, shake it once a day until it's broken down, then pour the water through a screen strainer. The TP has gone no where! Once the water dries out, the TP is still there! Hard as a rock!

relax, Dewey, nobody called it "scientific". And, however un-RV those hikers tests were, the results are consistent with other sources.

I find it useful to learn that not only water breaks the TP down. Burying it in the ground would be another alternative. You never know when you might have to use this method. Though I would rather burn it in this case.

RV toilets, on the other hand, have always been the edge of modern science and technology, with super-smell-retaining plastic, microscopic stream of water and extra-small seat :)... The convenience of this ingenious design only rivals RV shower heater, with 20 minutes waiting time for a 7-minutes shower...

I wouldn't use the term "dissolve" here. TP breaks down into sludge, cellulose fibers. To actually dissolve the fibers will take a bit more. Couldn't find any easy to understand write-up on cellulose fibers disintegration without using heavy chemicals.

Acampingwewillgo wrote:
We did this "test" a few year's ago at a group event in Quartzsite. We had 10-12 different brands of TP,(including "RV" TP) all put in jars with water and stirred once a day. I think the "RV" specific one dissolved at the bottom of the list of others. Not very scientific but similar results.

I agree. Although like you stated, not very scientific, all things being equal, it's good for a general comparison. :@
No, we don't use "special" RV toilet paper either. Never did.

On a separate note, we were always taught in Boy Scouts and in the military to bury our waste. And I thought all hikers and back packers did the same. Apparently not. I don't see the purpose of laying toilet paper on top of the ground to test decomposition. :?

We also did a study and found that the different glues used on the 2-ply tissue can affect the decomposition rate, and using RV paper held no guarantees of performance. Our take-away lesson was to simply use 1-ply paper.

We are not fans of RV paper and never buy it. We use Scotts singly ply, just like at home. But having said that, I wouldn't rush to judgement given the test results in the OP linked above, which have little application to an RV holding tank.

They pinned TP to the ground and waited for almost a month with only a trace of rain, and then had a more rainy day with 1.5 - 3 inches of rain. This might be a fine test for backpackers who do like bears and do it in the woods. But in my opinion it is pretty meaningless to RVers, who have a holding tank that has constant water and liquid in it and the TP sits in that liquid.

This is example of people taking an experiment and applying it to a completely different situation than intended. This is really the worst kind of application of science, because it has the appearance of credibility, but in reality has almost none.

Again, we don't use RV TP because I believe it is a waste of money. And maybe, as some have said, there are other experiments that prove it, but the experiment posted in the original post certainly doesn't. The experiment in the second post, even though appearing to be "less scientific" probably has more credibility.

We did this "test" a few year's ago at a group event in Quartzsite. We had 10-12 different brands of TP,(including "RV" TP) all put in jars with water and stirred once a day. I think the "RV" specific one dissolved at the bottom of the list of others. Not very scientific but similar results.