Honey, we're out of toilet paper

The Colin Beavan family of New York, featured here, are embarking on quite the interesting year-long experiment: forgoing toilet paper. It's all part of their "low-impact" lifestyle, which includes pretty much environmentally friendly everything--composting their other trash, namely food, with worms; riding a scooter to work (even in inclement weather); using flourescent light bulbs or candles. The Beavans are part of a movement that believes, in part, that while you might not be able to change the world, you can change your little corner of it by consuming as little as possible. (File this blog post under community health.) To me, their lifestyle is a bit extreme (and for the life of me, I can't figure out what one subs for toilet paper; the story doesn't say), but then again American wastefulness is extreme. The United States, with 4 percent of the world's population, accounts for 22 percent of world energy consumption. Our per capita consumption is 14 times greater, and CO2 emissions rate 18 times greater, than the low-income countries with 41 percent of the world's population.
Locally, two people I know ride their bikes to work, rain or shine. They both have cars but this is their way of sparing the environment. Another couple of friends, a married couple, are not buying anything new this year; even their clothes will come second-hand. This place in north Georgia follows suit: the food scraps are composted with worms, the toilets and sinks are environmentally friendly and no cars are allowed on the property except for staff. (Guests have to hike nearly five miles to get to the inn.) When I went there in 2000, a staff member told me she once put a pair of blue jeans into the worm pile, and eventually everything was gone but the zipper and buttons.
For her part, my mother composts her garden and she was into recycling way before bins were provided by the city. She and my dad also recently switched to fluorescent light bulbs.
An interesting concept: How much to consume? What to do with waste? Ideas? Reactions? (And please tell me alternative uses for toilet paper. Meanwhile I'll be happy to keep mine.)

P.S. The photo shows a farmer raking a compost pile.