Throwing toilet paper in a basket and taking it through the garbage route is a very sensible solution.
Have you lived where this is commonplace for any length of time? Have you done this in your own house? Having been born in a country where this was commonplace a few decades ago, I have a very hard time accepting it as a "sensible solution". It's just gross. I'd much rather pay for spelunking through my property taxes.
Surely you can pay for your own staff to clean the toilets. You're asking for infrastructure overhaul for what should be a waste basket with a lid emptied daily.
It is a good deal for me, I'm not denying that.
I put roughly as much credence in that statement as I would a smoker's that he doesn't really smell like smoke, or a dog owner's that his house doesn't really smell that doggy — i.e., none. I don't mean that rudely; I just don't think you notice the odour.
I too haven't had to unclog a toilet for reasons other than deficient toilets and/or excrement size for years.
What can do about it? I think that education is at fault. Most people in big cities does not realize how costly and important are jobs like sewer maintenance, garbage collectors, signal maintenance, gardeners, etc.
Without all this work cities will paralyze, the population will get sick or die, transport will stop working. etc. Without that work civilization instead of flourishing with economic growth and technology it literally will crumble into ruin.
Cities work because there is an absurdly large amount of people taking care of them. If it was a private endeavor there will be advertisements about their work everywhere. But, as a public service it is almost invisible. That is a shame.
Except most places I've been to and seen the practice have an open basket, I've never seen any soiled toilet paper in them and not entirely sure I'd like to...
I think about this in relation to modern society often these days. So much of the machinations that keep things running are invisible to the daily user.
Aside from older toilets that don't have the water flow design of contemporary systems that were designed to accept paper + waste, blockages down stream effect the flow of toilets upstream.
I used to work in hydrodynamics R&D (BHRA / BHR Group) and I shared an office with an engineer who had a project to analyse the UK's toilet designs and come up with design guidance for more efficient designs.
It was interesting to listen in on the call to the plumbing supplies company when he wanted to buy a couple of hundred toilets but instead of 200 of one type he wanted 2 of every model they had.
I did look at Computer vison / ML for this project, to measure flushing efficieny - but it was to expensive
Also, building code inspections may or may not be as strictly enforced in these countries, so even newly built things may not work properly.
I have been told it's because of smaller diameter pipes.
The subway authority in Seoul had some research done when they were preparing to get rid of wastebaskets in their public bathrooms a couple of years ago. They found that the plumbing infrastructure is more than capable of handling normal amounts of toilet paper, even in older stations. But clogs happen when the paper gets tangled up with wet wipes, feminine hygiene products, and miscellaneous items such as pens and phones (yes, phones!) that are either accidentally or deliberately dropped in the toilet.
When the subway authority and other large institutions did eventually get rid of the wastebaskets (they're smelly nuisances at best and biohazard at worst), the change was accompanied by a massive awareness campaign to discourage throwing foreign objects in the toilet. Separate receptacles for feminine hygiene products were added to women's bathrooms. There were some hiccups at first, but I think the change has been well received for the most part.
tl;dr: Paper is not the problem. A widespread habit of throwing foreign objects in the toilet is.
Many restaurants in North American cities have reminders that these should be thrown in the trash.
Then there's a co-worker's situation in his townhouse / condo development: some people, who are probably new immigrants don't know the rules of the road, have to be informed not to flush chicken carcasses down the toilet. Just put it in the green bin and it will be picked up with-in the week:
I'm in Toronto, and we get that kind of heat somewhat regularly, and the green bins haven't been a problem. It's the reason why they're picked up every week (garbage and recycling alternates).
(except you use Japanese washlet)
This is no different than the false economy of single-ply in North America: you end up using the same mass (volume?), you just have to have more pulls.
While not a topic I have quizzed many people on, I would hazard to guess that most folks want a certain thickness for their wipes. With two-ply you can achieve that with x revolutions of the roll, while with single-ply most people simply do 2x.
I'm not quite sure if single-ply really saves anything.
So for Argentina, are people really using more, or simply doing more pulls to reach the same thickness as the thicker-papered Americans?
Oddly a google search leads to lots of discussion on this topic with no agreement.
https://www.quora.com/Why-don%E2%80%99t-Mexicans-flush-their...
The answer to this question is not obvious. Even luxurious toilets in expensive hotels do not flush as nicely as in Canada/US. It’s not a cultural or environmental thing to not flush toilet paper —- toilets really do get clogged very easily and getting rid of the toilet paper might take multiple flushes. I’ve seen Brazilian toilets that pass a lot of water per flush but still don’t work well.
My current theories are that either Brazil uses narrower diameter drain pipes or that they have a more elongated P-trap than in the US and Canada. Someday I hope to run into a master plumber who’s worked in both Brazil and North America to tell me what the difference is.
EDIT: The Quora link below says that the same problem happens in Mexico because the Y-fitting under the toilet doesn’t have graceful curves compared to US fittings and/or the drain is not sufficiently vented, so the toilet water flows slower. Both of these also sound like plausible theories.