You know how some makers of baby wipes – or whatever you choose to call them –

tout their product as being “flushable”? Well, in one sense their claim can’t be challenged. Yes, you can flush wipes down the toilet – flushable and non-flushable alike. You also can flush paper towels, cigarette butts, jewelry, small toys, and many other objects down the toilet. But that doesn’t mean you should.

Bottom line, your toilets and drainage system are designed to flush only waste matter and toilet paper. Anything else, no matter how literally flushable it might be, is highly to get stuck farther down the drain line. Why? Because they don’t dissolve.

 

Are There Such Things as Flushable Wipes?

 

Consider the following from the May 2015 issue of Chemical & Engineering News:

“Once reserved for babies’ bottoms and toddlers’ fingers, wet wipes have found a market with consumers bent on keeping their backsides feeling fresh. But the premoistened personal wipes, now ubiquitous alongside toilet tissue in the supermarket aisle, are causing problems for wastewater plant managers.

They bemoan wipes’ incompatibility with sewage treatment technology and the millions of ratepayer dollars they’re forced to spend each year to pluck gobs of wipes out of their systems.”

And then this from The New York Times:

“In New York, city officials are tackling the problem in various ways. A City Council bill, which has the backing of the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, was introduced last month to prohibit advertising certain moist wipes as flushable. The environmental department has begun work on a public awareness campaign concerning the importance of proper wipe disposal: throwing them in the trash.”

As much as we’d like to advise you to flush wet wipes down your toilet all you want, we can’t.

Because that would be like urging you to clog your toilet so we can drum up more business.

And yet no matter how careful you might be, sooner or later you’re bound to face a clogged drain or toilet problem you alone can’t fix. Has that day already come? If so, contact PC Plumbing, Heating, AC & Remodeling for prompt service and dependable results.