Are wet-wipes actually flushable? Apparently someone has been flushing them in my building and its caused the downstairs to flood. I've never used them myself but an interesting thing happens when I look it up - there is a clear difference of opinion with wet-wipe companies saying yes and others saying no. I remember it being a local news issue years ago but never heard anything since.
I recently had a letter from the water people, saying that someone in our street had been flushing them (I'm absolutely one of them)
The letter simultaneously begged us not to flush them anymore, and threaten us that they can and will find out exactly which house is responsible. I feel like if that were true, they'd simply be knocking on the culprits doors instead of this approach. It felt very much like the threat of a TV detector van.
>>3184 >>3185 Interesting. Shouldn't the wet-wipe companies be looking at potentially massive fines for the damage and lying to consumers? It seems they even made an industry logo to pass it off as safe.
It's not leaded petrol but as someone who, upon finding out of the block, needed to take a poo, I feel like a victim here.
"Flushable" simply means that a wipe will actually go down the toilet. A lot of wet wipes are made of fairly tough plastic that won't break down in sewage systems.
Wipes with the "Fine to Flush" mark have been tested for compliance with the water industry's own standards and should fully disintegrate without snagging or clumping in the drainline. That doesn't mean that they'll never cause blockages, but they shouldn't pose a problem in properly maintained sewage systems. This accreditation has only existed since 2019 and it hasn't been particularly well publicised, so there's still a lot of confusion.
>Literally half the country admits flushing these, so since we're not wading through shit in every other street, they can't be that bad.
I guess it's a matter of quantity. ONE wipe flushed down the bog isn't going to clog the entire pipe, but if you wipe your arse with loads of them after a runny shit, it could add up.
Toilet paper is designed to disintegrate into little bits when it comes into contact with water, which you can easily see for yourself if you swirl around a few sheets of it in a sink with water. It can still block pipes if you use too much of it in one go, but it normally doesn't.
One of my flatmates at uni once flushed down a sponge scouring pad and a sponge cloth that he'd used to clean the bathroom and toilet bowl, and we had to call an emergency plumber at 4am because the toilet bowl in the ground floor flat below ours was overflowing as a result. The poor lad downstairs was literally wading through his own shit and ours in his bathroom. The plumber cost 300 quid, just to knock loose a sponge pad and cloth at 4am.
>Yorkshire Water director Ben Roche says biodegradable and 'fine to flush' wipes don't break down in the sewer network.
>"Those labelled 'fine to flush' often indicate only one wipe should be flushed at a time, but often this is not followed or understood by customers, with less than half saying the logo indicated only one wipe should be flushed at a time," he says.
>"Even then, these wipes generally contain plastic so do not break down in the sewer as toilet roll does."
Remember that French guy who put those zorbeez in his bathtub and fucked up his street's sewerage system?
Wet wipes expand when wet, and likewise contract when dry. However long it takes for them to break down depends on what sort of fibres are being used, I'd imagine.
I suspect Big Wet Wipe is suppressing wet wipe technology that allows the dissolvability of those flying saucer sweets (minus the sherbet) and the temporary structural integrity of a chamois leather.
