So it was recently brought to my attention that not everyone puts used toilet paper in the trash can, and many of these people are apparently horrified by those who do, making claims that it is a "health hazard," going so far as to say that the practice would result in eviction (for those living in an apartment.)
While there is no argument that flushing used toilet paper down the toilet after you go to the bathroom is ideal under ideal circumstances (and is what I did when I was at college, due to their powerful flushing systems), the standard bathroom does not have a toilet that operates under ideal conditions.
Toilets today are designed (for ill-conceived of reasons) to conserve water, and with this conservation of water, comes an increased risk of the toilet getting clogged after going to the bathroom. Without any additional toilet paper in the toilet, and without tracking actual numbers, I estimate the toilet I use regularly to have between a 1:5 to 1:3 chance of getting clogged after I use it. If you add the toilet paper I use on top of that (up to 1/2 a roll), the rate increases dramatically. And from experience, I know that when a toilet gets clogged from using too much toilet paper, it is difficult to plunge.
This means that there is a high probability of the toilet getting clogged after I use it and put toilet paper in it on top of my shit. So I have several options:
1. I can reduce my toilet paper consumption. The consequences of this would be smelly hands and resultant increased hand-washing, and a painful, unclean butt.
2. I can ignore the increase in clogging and difficulty of unclogging, and just expect to plunge my shit every time I go to the bathroom. The cons of this are it's unhygienic, wastes water, is disgusting, and wastes time.
3. I can stack the toilet paper off to the side as I wipe my ass, flushing my shit first, then the toilet paper second. Considering that I would literally be temporarily storing shit for future transport (and the mechanics of that), I find this option disgusting.
4. I can continue to neatly (face-down) throw my shit away in the trash, and change the trash bags regularly.
