“Flushable” wipes are ruining sewage plants
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- Wipes and other products that get flushed down the toilet cause millions of dollars in problems for cities like New York. They clog up the machinery at sewage plants like the Wards Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Verge Science video team went to see the damage wipes can do, and got up close and personal with the bits of fabric that cost cities millions and millions of dollars each year to manage.
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What products do you actually wish were flushable by industry standards?
Every product labeled flushable... I guess you can compare the industry to Volkswagen with their diesel gate. We're going to sell you something tell you what it is and that it's better but actually worse
iphones
Roaches
None except toilet-paper and menstruation products
@@throttleblip1 agreed
I don’t understand why a commercial group was able to label products as flushable in the first place. Just another example of private industry fleecing taxpayers who ultimately pay the bill.
You might be interested in watching 'Second Thought' (Channel on TH-cam)
Welcome to Capitalism, my guy. That's how the whole system is run.
@@VoidUnderTheSun but that's not a capitalism, that's opposite. In the capitalism those producers would be compensating the cleaning of the motors.
@@dubdadabooda1038 this is happening under capitalism though??
@@dubdadabooda1038 In what capitalistic system they would be compensating for those? The clients of the service (in this case cleaning of water) pay for the maintainance of the systems used in the service (cleaning the motors). These companies aren’t the clients.
This is an example of quality reporting. Good stuff, Verge.
Yes, straight to the point with as many important details as possible. Very rare to see in today's news.
Not quality reporting...a lot of what they said were opinions stated as facts.
@@paradisesunprincess what did they say that was an opinion?
I worked at WRc, the company that grades toilet paper and wipes for "Fine to Flush" in the UK. Let's just say there's a reason that I left (last month).
And … what was the reason?
Tell us
@@prahastha1618 obvilly because they did a bad job
what an informative comment.
Obviously he left because he did such a good job that they no longer needed him.
101 Reasons to use a bidet
That's all I thought too.
Exactly
It's cleaner too
Combine a Bidet with Rain water harvesting and Abracadabra
@@anandamreetkamilla7112 That depends are you being cheap or “environmentally friendly?”
I flush sewer lines and manholes all the time. You should see the stuff that people flush down their toilets. Basically it's out of sight out of mind for them. These wipes clog up things ALL the time. I always call them 'dryer sheets' when I'm handling the issue.
Name checks out.
God bless you for the job you do.
They have the same texture as dryer sheets.
So you're telling me that an industry created their own certification just so they can pass as "flushable" with bare minimum requirements.
*=pretends to be shocked=*
"Flushable" wipes play havoc with your septic systems too. Don't know how many people I've seen had their septic tanks and/or leeching fields re-worked because "flushable" wipes have filled them and won't dissolve. It's very costly for a homeowner.
Just install a bidet and reduce toilet paper usage. It's hygienic.
I hope sooner than later that these companies will start being more forthcoming about the labels on their products. The marketing departments aren't helping the environment much either.
We should sentence their boards if directors to community service clearing wipes out of wastewater treatment equipment.
I was sad when I learned this was a problem because I used to be a big user of them.
They're great from a user's point of view, but bad for everyone else, so I stopped and got a Fohm device which puts foam into regular toilet paper to dampen it just enough. It's much better than just TP, but not as good as the wipes, so now I'm looking into one of those bidets that install on the toilet.
I hope they get the manufacturers to the higher flushability standard.
Bidets save lives.
BIDETS are the way to go! I have one and haven't used toilet paper in years!
UPDATE: I got the bidet several months ago and love it. I miss it on trips away from home. When I went to stay at my mom's house for a couple of weeks, I gave her one so I could also use it :-D
@@noisycarlos Water/tissues the way.
Muslim hack for when your travelling use a an empty bottle & refill it with the water your gunna use to clean yourself
@@vermontgasman but don't you have to dry with TP?
Plumbers hate flushable wipes. That’s all you need to know.
Why? Wouldn't it just be job security?
After my vacation in Japan I never understood why western countries haven't adapted Japanese-like toilets..
I work for a city where the sewer lines take about 45 minutes to make it to the treatment plant. In that span, sometimes the water goes thru multiple lift stations before reaching the main plant. They break down somewhat along the way, then reform fibers when that minimum rpm to break it up isn't achieved. Pumps then gather the reformed wipes and catch on the spinning blades that moves the water, causing a backup, which continues to collect more, you can easily burn out a motor on a pump which can back up plumbing in houses actually costs taxpayers more in the long term. I'm glad this video was created, its good info to put out there when your neighbor might be someone causing a backup of sewage, in your basement.
I know the message here is not to flush any of these products, but it's frustrating that neither the video nor the original study it's based on will name the product that performed much better than the rest (2 were cited as partial dissolving, but in the official report "product #57" was clearly superior to "product #51"). If you drive up demand for the better dissolving product, others will compete to outperform it in this category, and maybe then we'll get them all engineered to an acceptably dissolvable level. Right now they're only competing on comfort and price, because buyers have no idea how they differ in "dissolvability."
To anyone who flushes ANYTHING other than toilet paper: I hope you enjoy paying high taxes. Because it's becoming a problem to a point that it needs higher tax funds.
Oh sure blame the tax payer instead of the Government spending Trillions and making everything more expensive. Yup our government is speeding up our inflation. But you are more worried about some poop wipes clogging the waste systems.
Shave 10% from the military and we can have a sewer system that can flush cars down without clogging lol
Sewage charge is added to the water utility bill, not the property tax bill in my municipality.
There should be a local regulation and an ISO for this
Local regulations aren't enough. We are talking about multinational corporations.
@@TacticusPrime That's right! I think an ISO for flushable products would be a first step for international regulation (if there isn't one yet)
Clogged my toilet twice because of these, finally learned after the plumber costs. No such thing as "flushable"
I'm a plumber and if I see these in someones house I warn them!
Amazing, great reporting!
If you put me in a slosh box, I'll be 60% degraded after 60 minutes...
I am FLUSHABLEMAN!
Really nice document, love it.
Excellent video, excellent footage, great commentary, really intelligent and well-rounded. Gets to the point. I learned a lot and I appreciate you all for making this
We don't even flush TP in Mexico, because it also clogs up the sewers.
half of the world doesn't actually , i think some of tte standards we have in europe are pretty nasty. this reminds me of people that are surprised that i wash my own underwear when i am in the shower. they put their stained drawers in the basket. Pfuh !
The pipes for the whole building clogged when they found someone flushing kitty litter, people are just un informed and not resposible
People are just plain stupid and careless. It’s kinda common sense. Just like… using turn signals, standing and driving on the right, so people can pass on the left… cleaning up after one’s self…
😲
There is wide visible difference between Flushable vs Dissolvable.
People need to understand this
sure, that's the point of this video. You're right that we need to understand this but the onus shouldn't have been on us to find out. The general public needs to understand the difference nowadays because the companies who make these products misled consumers knowingly years ago... They knew flushable would lead people to assume they were dissolvable (or generally, sewage system safe).
I don't think there is an expectation that most consumers should have known to ask themselves what "flushable" actually means and implies for the sewage system downstream. I'm sure most thought either it's a rigorious standard, government mandated, or just trusted what the companies claimed.
Why use toilet paper?
Why not water?
Water goes through the fingers, probably? Or you mean taking a shower each time? In office? In MacDonald's?
@@dubdadabooda1038 use a water sprayer or a bidet. No need for you touch the 💩
@@karthik_mv to answer your question, there’s videos that explain why toilet paper caught on instead of bidets. They are coming around to them now though
th-cam.com/video/nI5shsQuauY/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Z6dvGXiT5H8/w-d-xo.html
@@Maverickgouda cool
Thanks
Bidets need to be standard, just like in Japan.
There should be a heavy tax on these so-called flushable wipes that aren’t.
A salute and mad respect to all the people running and mantaining the sanitation infrastructure. You are heroes, we all depend on you!
* laughs in bidets *
This whole video was old news to pretty much everyone, right?
Yep this is a problem as a landlord. Tenants using “flushable” wipes that end up clogging the drain and having to get snaked out by a drain cleaner. Ranges from $150-400 depending on how bad it gets.
Do you pay these by yourself or have you probably found a way to make tenants pay themselves? (I mean if you have more than one tenant, of course)
You'll live.
@@dubdadabooda1038 in the case of wipes, tampons, or something else they put in the toilet it's on the tenant. If it's tree roots getting into drain lines then I pay.
Tenants in one of my houses were flushing cat litter like a bunch of idiots & it cost me $600+ to fix it. I told them that if it happens again I'm going to give them the boot.
As someone planning this kind of stuff: the problem is, the pipes have only a certain reasonable gradient in which they can be installed (in Germany this is usually 1%) and we have already reached the limits in saving water (the most economical toilets use only 4l per complete flush). This means you should always flush completely and not stop in advance if you had a big business. Otherwise, the pipes have to be cleaned at great expense. Of course, only toilet paper should be flushed.
thank goodness I'm going into the water treatment side of the water world. "flushable" wipes are still a big problem though.
It is a marketing strategy because many customers assume something to be flushable if it can safely flush out from the toilet without clotting it. This also shows how bad people are in naming things. They are "flushable", but they are not "quasi-soluble" with water. (It is not soluble in the sense of salt in water, so I call it quasi-soluble.)
"Is a world wide everywhere problem" 😂
this is why bidet's should be the norm
I guess “flushable” means it’s just flushable in toilet. I think they don’t care if it’s dissolvable or not.
Get a bidet everyone. You can get cheap non electronic bidets that connect to cold and hot water so you get nice warm water cleaning out your beauty hole. It’s so much more refreshing than paper.
Shout out to the two products that did breakdown!
Thank you for the education. Top notch work.
Wish it was clearer they were talking about the US specifically - Other countries have more ubiquitous actually flushable products.
Why don't these facilities file for damages from these wipe companies?
Great video, interesting topic.
With how much my bill is for water usage, I’m gonna keep flushing my flushable wipes.
Who knew that the right approach would be like in developing countries where nothing but poop is flushed.
Cottenelle wipes are the only kind that actually break down like toilet paper, and sometimes better than some premium brand toilet paper.
look at cottonelle flushable wipes. in video tests they break down just as quickly and as completely as toilet paper
Maybe just fine the companies that lie on their product descriptions
the septic tank guy that installed the system on my new house told me NOT TO USE CHARMIN and other "soft" TP because it would gum up the system. GREASE is another NO NO in the drain. Grow up, folks, be responsible.
Maybe the companies who made those wipes and advertised them should pay for the damages.
TY ☺️
people are idiots.... corporations are criminals....
I think we just need to change people’s mindset on flushing things other than toilet paper down the toilet. If a wipe isn’t labeled as flushable, people will still flush it because that’s what they’re used to doing.
This is why I pop in the wild, and use 🍃🍂
Don't grab poison ivy by mistake lol
I bet a lot of us can’t use this model of corruption and apply it to other things, such as medicine, or drugs..
Yet again another reason to leave cities..... the suburbs and rural areas have septic systems.
How sad, still going to use them, literally 200% cleaner with them.
As long as no one hacks the sewage plant we should be okay... no wait we are screwed. Yuk. Stop flushing things that are "flushable"?! @_@;;
I love Pam!
The solution is to use water instead of wipes which will reduce the unflushable waste.
You mean taking a shower each time? In public WC as well?
And the thing is that it's not a toilet paper what a problem is. It's wipes, which is not used as a toilet paper (well, by adequate people at least)
What about paper towels? Do they disintegrate properly?
BusyCo is producing amazing wipes but not flushable cause they admitted that it's not doable for now.
Vinny, so you are using the bidet then.
One billion a year across the entire country? That doesn't sound like an issue to me at all lol
Why not just ban flushable wipes?
Because they cannot do that with... privately owned businesses? :( It's just a guess but I wish that was the solution
US the land of the absence of regulations...
Imagine the smell
Me living in an entire continent where most people dont use toilet paper
So like, why do my toilet wipes dissolve faster than TP then? Like... Just left in the toilet for an hour and they are more dissolved than the TP you showed in this video.
Maybe you got lucky and got a good brand/product that meets the higher standard? That's the whole point of this video, there is currently no way to ensure that a product labeled flushable will actually make it through.
Examples like these are why we NEED regulation. The government needs to tell these companies to either make wipes that dissolve, or remove the "flushable" text from the packaging.
If you're triggered by this, then you'll be even more angry when your taxes are higher because the sewer system is clogged.
And think about it, private companies get to market lies, and make a profit. Meanwhile it's messing the sewers up, and taxpayers have to fix a problem a private company made. This is where your rage should be directed
Bidets FTW!
And that's why wiping business should be replaced by washing business. Please install bidets or similar water sources.
Why don't the sewage company put sewage thru a shredder first?
Use water instead to clean whatever you want to clean
Psst. The answer is bidets with adjustable water temp. Just get one. You’ll never go back
Just sue them
Sounds more like we need better management and automation to deal with such wipes than just removing the wipes altogether. We are humans. Adapt.
No matter what the label says, people still need to use common sense which is not common.
Why don't they sue?
Flushable wipes are non-flushable. They literally got stuck in our toilet. Causing it to be incredibly hard / impossible to unclog.
Make it so problems happen much closer to the people that cause the problems so they don't do it that often
Les doy un humilde consejo: empiecen a usar bidets
europeans With bidet : yeha take that nerds
Easy solution is use a bidet
FFS...Just Use Water...😓😂
Americans should really start using bidet for cleaning
The most sad thing to me is there will be people in the US who see this, and who are contributing to the problem, and will do nothing to change their behavior.
Why just the US? I know it's not the only country that uses flushable wipes.
Or... just install a bidet
wait if they're not flushable... what are you supposed to do with them after you use them???
You're supposed to leave them on the store shelves.
throw them in the bin?
i hope they ban all wips it should stop selling them in all shop to pls 😁
Why can’t American ppl juz use a Bidet/Perinal spray instead of toilet paper , i mean like tf , countries in Europe and Asia already use em
As a sales person who travels a lot, I use wipes because there are no bidets in public bathrooms in America. Toilet paper alone simply is not enough to get yourself clean, so I use wipes. I even use disinfecting wipes on the seat and handle too, because the bathrooms aren't clean. If bathrooms were clean and had bidets, I wouldn't need to use wipes. I see it as not my fault, I'm doing what I need to do to be clean and hygienic because public facilities don't offer those things.
What happened to investigative journalism? Why would you produce a video without the slosh box? How expensive could it be? Congrats, you did one interview with a utility person and pulled some stock footage. We heard from nobody in the industry, you didn’t ask the tough questions. This is nothing more than a PSA. Waste of my time.
Screw it, everyone should just get bidets
Don’t flush drugs, do drugs.
This is but yet another case for science based policy.
It actually more common in third world countries to not flush anything that’s not fecal matter or pee.
Companies having a lower standard developed by them that doesn't match reality? Seems normal.
I feel like I saw this video last year..
Akasha, you are cukoo
@@PHlophe open TH-cam. Search 'flushable wipes sewage' and see how many you find over the last decade. More than a few each year, all pretending they're covering something new. The more you know..
Use water, bidets are the best.