If you can’t flush them, why are they called “flushable”?
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Here’s the thing, you *probably* CAN flush them, but as a better safe than sorry, you probably shouldn’t.
Sewage companies/workers etc have complained a lot in recent years about having to deal with major blockages caused by wipes in the wake of “flushable” wipes hitting the market. Here’s the thing: individual wipes aren’t labeled. So how do they know whether the clogs are caused by “flushable” wipes? There are plenty of non-flushable still on the market. I have some that I know are definitely labeled explicitly as do not flush.
I also know I’ve seen people demonstrate flushable wipes by sticking them in water for 30 seconds and then swirling them and they turn into shreds of nothing. But of course there’s a LOT of flushables out there, maybe some of them don’t break down as well?
There’s also probably a decent number of people out there who may have started buying wipes not realizing that not *all* are flushable and started flushing them creating a problem.
So, honestly you can *probably* flush those flushable wipes and be fine. But it’s hard to know for sure. Which is why the mantra has become “don’t flush any of them ever”. And honestly, there’s probably a trash can in your bathroom anyway. Is it really that big of a deal to just toss em in the trash instead?
Are there any brands that are actually safe to flush?
Golf balls are also flushable. Lots of things are. That doesn’t mean they should go down a drain.
Most people posting here have it wrong. There are flushable wipes that are actually flushable. Cottenelle makes some nice one and there are many other brands. Never flush baby wipes! Or their equivalent. You can tell the difference by trying to tear them, or do the most pertinent test of leaving them in a bowl of water overnight. Flushable wipes dissolve just like paper. Maybe a little slower but only a few hours slower, not several years slower like baby wipes.
what kind are you getting? The ones I use have never been an issue. I even ran to the bathroom. “These wipes meet flushability guidelines set by the wastewater treatment community (IWSFG 2020) and by the disposable wipes trade association.”
What about the UK’s ‘Fine to Flush’ badge that is a standard that wipes have to reach to be actually flushable.
Maker lied and they arent actually safe. They dont disintegrate the way toilet paper does, and because of this they gum up and clog the systems that purify our water for re-use.
I have been using flushable wipes my whole life and flushing them my whole life. I have had to use a plunger a couple times but only when I used way to many at once. Some houses plumbing might not be adequate to handle them though just depends on the plumbing.
Because “flushable” wipes are not usually flushable. They take too long to decompose and end up clogging sewage pipes. Here are two easy ways to determine if a wipe is actually flushable or not. 1) When you open the package is the wipe wet/moist? If yes, it’s not flushable. 2) When you tap water over the wipe, does it immediately start to fall apart? If not, it’s not flushable.
This’ll be a long, but hopefully simple, post talking about this from a UK perspective. Will talk about ‘do not flush’ wipes, ‘flushable’ wipes, and ‘fine to flush’ wipes. I work in the UK Water Industry specifically on the wet wipe issue, and have sat in workshops about the ‘fine to flush’ standard.
For something to be genuinely flushable, it basically needs to not cause a problem for the sewer system. This includes the pipes it travels through, pumping stations (or lift stations in the USA), and the sewage treatment works at the end. Anything that doesn’t break apart could block a pipe or clog up a pump. Because sewage doesn’t stop, if the pipe is blocked or the pump is broken, that sewage will back up until it comes out somewhere. That could be a manhole in the road, or somebody’s toilet or sink in their house.
One thing to bear in mind, at least in the UK, is the size of your sewer pipes coming from your home. Normally, they’re only about 10cm wide! It doesn’t take much to clog them up. When we talk about blocked pipes, we’re almost always talking about these little pipes. It’s not often that the monster “fatbergs” you might have heard of happen.
1) ‘Do not flush’ wipes. Hopefully nice and simple, they don’t break apart! Often (but not always) have plastic fibres holding it all together. Those fibres snag on things in the sewer pipes (remember, there’s all sorts of nasty things in there the wipe could get caught on!). Once one gets stuck, then another gets stuck on that one, and another, until the pipe is blocked. Even if it does get the whole way through the pipes and the pumping station to the sewage treatment works, there’s a whole bunch of really expensive infrastructure right at the entrance to the treatment works which basically act as a giant sieve to catch all the wipes and other bits, and put them into skips. At one treatment works in London, almost 1000 tons per month is taken out like this.
2) ‘Flushable’ wipes. Quite often, these aren’t flushable in the way I described above and are just ‘Do not flush’ wipes in disguise! Like a lot of people have mentioned here, they’ll get down your toilet but not much further. ‘Flushable’ isn’t a protected term, so can just be slapped on anything. The Advertising Standards Authority have chosen not to get involved here. Fortunately, at least in the UK, this is becoming rarer. They still exist, but not as much as they did 10 years ago.
3) ‘Fine to Flush’ wipes. This is a real UK standard! Its fancy name is “WIS 4-02-06” and is agreed by the UK Water Industry. It’s not perfect though. Because it’s a voluntary standard, and not something forced by Government, we had to compromise on the standard. If we went for full flushable standard, it was unlikely that the wet wipe manufacturers would actually sign up to it. So it was made a little less strict so that manufacturers actually did make ‘Fine to Flush’ wipes. They’re better than “Do not Flush” wipes, but they’re still not quite flushable – they should only be flushed one-at-a-time, and even then can still block pipes. For example, these wipes must be plastic-free. So this is still a really good way to buy wipes if you’re trying to reduce your plastic use!
Because of the issues with the ‘Fine to Flush’ standard, [it’s being cancelled](https://www.water.org.uk/news-views-publications/news/fine-flush-certification-end) by March 2024.
This means that, in the UK, there will not be **any** wipes certified as flushable. The Water Industry, and now the UK Government, are behind the [“Bin the Wipe” campaign](https://www.binthewipe.org/).
Some water companies now have teams who are putting [pointy things in sewers](https://www.nwg.co.uk/news-and-media/news-releases/porcupine-is-coming-to-sniff-out-wipe-offenders—and-its-bringing-some-new-friends/) to catch wipes in places where they get a lot of blockages and find out where they’re coming from so they can talk to the right people.
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