How Much Would SeaTac Saved if they Installed Bidets? Answer: A lot!

Bidets are one of those things that might sound a little scary to use at first but, as soon as you do, you won't go back.

It gets to the point where you dread traveling as you know most restaurants and hotels don't have bidets installed.

It got me thinking at busy places, like SeaTac airport, what if they installed bidets on all the toilets at the airport. How much money would they save in toilet paper expenses.

Well! Let's find out.

Get our free mobile app

I'm not the best with math but I'm not bad so I'll see if I can come up with a general answer that's in the ballpark of a factual answer as there are many variables. I still think the percentage will add up to be about the same.

How many toilets are at SeaTac

Without actually flying there with a clip board and checking every stall, I did some averages. Let's say there are 120 bathrooms and each have 10 stalls.

This a very vague estimate as some bathrooms only have 6 while some have more.
See The Best Place for Fish and Chips in WA
So, 10 toilets with 120 bathrooms, let's say SeaTac has 1200 toilets total.

What is the average TP usage per person?

Depending on the rolls they use, we're going to say they use a cheaper-grade toilet paper (which they do for the most part, and another reason you should travel with your own TP in your backpack) -- we'll say the standard roll is 200 squares and the average person uses 8 per... session. 200 squares at 8 per session that means the average roll gets about 25 uses before they have to replace it.

While we're talking about toilet paper, I'm sure they get a bulk-rate but I'll also vaguely say each roll costs $1 to keep it a nice, even number. Never mind the price, I'm just using it to find numbers that will come to a percentage.

How much does TP do you save when you use a bidet?

If the average usage is 8 squares per session, we'll account for 2 squares just to help dry yourself. This is, of course, assuming the bidet doesn't have a drier setting which we won't worry about as if SeaTac were to get bidets, it'll just be basic ones without fancy setting like drier. No problem.

So, about 75% less tp when you use a bidet vs. without one.

How often are the toilets used at SeaTac?

Have you had to wait for a toilet at SeaTac before after a long flight? I know I have. Even the guy's bathroom has a line at times. More guestimating but lemme see what I can come up with.

Let's say the average toilet time is 5 minutes. That gives time to position your suitcase, do you business, check your email and answer a few messages while you're not so much in a rush. Soon as you get out there's already someone going in and that cycle repeats itself for most of the day.
See The Best Seafood Restaurant in WA
If you account for busy traffic during the day, we can say between 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. we can say those 16 hours divided by 5 minutes comes to 192 times a day that toilet is in use. SeaTac does have toilets in other times of day, too, but before and later than that prime block they may not be in use as much so we'll just open that for variability.

If you take that 192 times a day the toilet is in use and 8 squares are the average tp usage you can account for every toilet stall going through about 7.68 rolls a day.

7.68 rolls a day for 1200 toilets, it would seem as SeaTac uses about 9,216 rolls of toilet paper daily.

Again, very rough estimate, but it's a number we can play with.

9,216 x 365 days a year you're looking at SeaTac using an average of 3,363,840 rolls a year. And if each roll cost them one dollar, it would be $3,363,840 they spend on just toilet paper annually.

So! What if SeaTac installed bidets in each toilet.

Nothing fancy, just a cheaper one that just has basic wash functions, no heating or anything.
You can buy those for about $40 each. Even cheaper and I'm sure, again, SeaTac could get a bulk-rate.
But we can say $40 x the 1200 toilets would be $48,000. Pretty big chunk of money up front.

How much could SeaTac save if they installed bidets on all the toilets?

Figuring toilet paper usage is cut down 75% less when you use a bidet, SeaTac could drop that $3,363,840 bill on toilet paper down to $840,960 per year.

400% in savings.

Even when you tack on the initial investment of $48,000 for the $40 bidets it'd still be less money with that + how much they'd still spend on toilet paper vs. just using toilet paper without the bidets.

C'mon, SeaTac! Time to make that change.