Do NOT Flush Flushable Wipes - Because They Ain't Flushable

When I toured the Lowell Wastewater Treatment plant, Brian and Cody both let me know that "flushable wipes" are NOT something you want to flush down the toilet. They do not break up and they can cause clogs in sewers drains.

Fast forward a couple of years and for some reason I decided to conduct an experiment. I purposely chose the Cottonelle wipes because of the wording on their package. "Tested With Plumbers" and the picture of a happy dolphin gave a quick visual impression that maybe things had changed since the guys delivered their warning.

In case you cannot read the lower right, here is what it says, "Cottenelle Flushable wipes start to break down immediately after flushing and are septic and sewer safe. For best results flush only one or two at a time."

So I took an equal size piece of Angel Soft 2 ply toilet paper and put it into a container

of tap water. To simulate a flush, right after I put them in the containers I swirled them around five times with the red handled kitchen tool.

At first glance after 24 hours it looked like the flushable wipe WAS breaking up. The cloudy water was similar in appearance to the cloudy water containing the TP. However, the first glance was deceiving - There was NOTHING in the TP container that could possible clog anything other than maybe a cocktail straw (I will leave that test up to you). 

On the other hand, you can see that the cloud in the wipe container was just chemicals or lotion or something, because the wipe came up out of the water on the handle in a semi-solid condition.

48 hours later it was pretty much the same.

Conclusion - all the little pictures and implications on the packaging of these dolphin friendly, tested with plumber wipes are Hog Wash.

Folks - do NOT flush flushable wipes. They do NOT break down.

The Drain Commissioner in Macomb County is actually bringing a lawsuit against the four major manufacturers of wipes because of the deceptive nature of their packaging and advertising. Here is one picture that accompanied a story about the lawsuit done by the Detroit Free Press.

Here is a link to the story: Drain Commissioner Lawsuit