“Flushable” towels sound great. In theory, you use them like a baby wipe – just on your own adult bum – without having to throw your feces-smeared wipe in the trash can. Just rinse and off you go. But is that really a good idea? Probably not: A report from Bloomberg says the National Association of Clean Water Agencies estimates that municipalities spend about $ 1 billion each year on securing sewers attributed to flushable wipes. The problem apparently worsened during the pandemic.
Do “flushable” wipes really dissolve?
The companies that make flushable wipes firmly believe that they dissolve after being washed. Cottonnelle has a website Dedicated to the claim that the wipes are “made for your pipes” and “break down immediately after flushing”. The page contains a confirmation from a sewage company that the wipes are “compatible with our system”.
But cloths make up a significant part of the “mountains of fat” that clog the city’s sewers. Ordinary non-flushable cloths are certainly one of them, but Cities like New York are suspicious of the supposedly flushable. NYC “Respect the Flush” campaign urges residents to throw away all wet towelswhether or not they are labeled as “flushable,” and although the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t name flushable wipes, they say Do not rinse any type of wipe, toilet paper only. In short: I would absolutely not wash a flushable cloth, no matter what the label says.
It only takes a little reading to spot a few flaws in the wiper company’s protests against flushability. For example, Cottonelle goes to great lengths to differentiate itself from the other brands of so-called flushable towels, which are nowhere near as flushable as hers. This suggests that even the manufacturers of flushable wipes know that the word “flushable” on a label should not be taken at face value.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Then there is the warning found in the fine print on the back of some of these packets – “For best results, only wash one or two wipes at a time” – which suggests that the washability of these wipes is indeed quite limited: One or two of certain brands of wipes can fail under the right conditions. (Cottonelle tested hers with a one hour soak time and six minutes stirring time.)
Even if the wipe manufacturers are right that the wipes are sometimes flushable, that doesn’t mean that flushable towels are always flushable. Better stick to what cities and the EPA recommend and Just flush the four ps: poop, pee, throw up and [toilet] Paper.
This story was originally published October 2020 and was updated with new links on March 31, 2021 to comply with Lifehacker style guidelines.
