“Flushable” wipes are ruining sewage plants
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 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 CZcams)
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?”
Just install a bidet and reduce toilet paper usage. It's hygienic.
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.
Me, who lives in a country where 46% of people, including me, don't have access to sewer:
Me, living in America: also isn't attached to sewer.
Sewer is just a hole in the ground.
@@liebendeinsam In my village we just dump everything in the river and it never clogged
@@Sussy-Walter that's so sad...
That’s really unfortunate, I still can’t comprehend having to live without an effective sewage and toilet system
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?
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.
After my vacation in Japan I never understood why western countries haven't adapted Japanese-like toilets..
I wish there were info of all these so readily available in my third world country and native language. I end up learning everything through how it is in "the states"
True, and what makes me really irritated is that because virtually all the data and documentation are from the US or Europe. The people from our nation just makes it that "it's only an american/western problem". This applies to everything, people just thinks everything's working 100% perfectly here because they didn't see nor hear any documentation/data of anything here.
well, if your government refuses, then *if you really want it* , you have to do it yourself since you already know the language....not your job? that's fine as well, that's why I ask whether you really want it or not
Zinedine Zidane, if anything it clues in the type of sheit ( no pun ) we should never import from the EU or US
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.
bidet it, don't wipe it.
Yes!!! I don't understand why people people still wipe. It's killing the evironment and it's doesn't even clean well
@@kiennguyen521 because not every house has one???
@@01JENNERS then you can order one. You have to go out of your way to buy TP already. You just need to buy a bidet once.
'Wipes' here means 'toilet paper' right? We don't even use toilet paper in my country, just spray it with water 😂
No man, toilet paper is flushable, while most of wipes are not
Honestly, that'd probably be better for all countries.
@@lunarcorpse water usage could be a problem, especially in a densely populated area.
@@arisaardi7576 Nah it takes more water to produce TP
Wipes are not toilet paper. Wipes are a lot thicker
Plumbers hate flushable wipes. That’s all you need to know.
Why? Wouldn't it just be job security?
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.
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."
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.
Macomb County Michigan (just outside of Detroit) in May 2020 filed a lawsuit to require the manufacturers to change their labeling of wipes because of the the problems they create in waste water treatment plants.
One idea is to not allow company's to market this stuff as "flushable ". There should be strong printed warnings on the packaging that is easily seen. God forbid a company miss out on profits though.....🙄 and this is why regulation and oversight is needed in the corporate world especially. Very informative video, makes me angry that this is a fine example of company's not being environmentally responsible at all and the government not holding them accountable.
Either 1). Outlaw these wipes. or
2). Tax the manufacturers and send the revenue to the city sewage treatment plants to cover their costs for dealing with these wipes.
Outlaw something that cleans you?
@@1roundleft821 there’s something called toilet paper
or cities and homeowners could start filing lawsuits against the companies
3) Take Hank Williams' advice and mind your own business.
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!
If you put me in a slosh box, I'll be 60% degraded after 60 minutes...
I am FLUSHABLEMAN!
Amazing, great reporting!
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.
It was not the best idea to pick this video to watch during my lunch break
Maybe ask the city/locality leaders to regulate/ban retailers from selling products labeled "flushable"? Got to stop it at the source of consumers are being duped by the manufacturers
Hmmm
Really nice document, love it.
whats flushable and not should be regulated by the government so only truly flushable can be flushed.
cities should also be charged for containing non-flushables in their waste to encourage people to only flush what they should.
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
An alternative is to dampen your toilet paper.. and use that to wipe your bottom instead.
Right? I thought this was common sense, but apparently not. People just buy whatever ads sell to them, without questioning anything.
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…
😲
Bidets need to be standard, just like in Japan.
The machinery might need an upgrade, or re-engineering to help in its efficiency and improved durability. Standards should be updated to make better flushable products (be able to not break while used but break down under proper regulations), also integrate a govt incentive program to upgrade household bathrooms to use bidets (nyc needs upgrades n the pandemic is the best time to upgrade transit / household regulations).
Sounds to me like they need to change their machinery so it grinds this stuff down too.
Which is a bunch of money which should be payed by whom? By the taxpayers or by the wrong standard creators/manufacturers?
I guess “flushable” means it’s just flushable in toilet. I think they don’t care if it’s dissolvable or not.
A salute and mad respect to all the people running and mantaining the sanitation infrastructure. You are heroes, we all depend on you!
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.
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
czcams.com/video/nI5shsQuauY/video.html
czcams.com/video/Z6dvGXiT5H8/video.html
@@Maverickgouda cool
Thanks
Why doesn't the government go after forcing these companies that market their products to be flushable when they really arent. Just like the IRS forces people to pay their fair share, the same treatment should be given to these companies.
* laughs in bidets *
There should be a heavy tax on these so-called flushable wipes that aren’t.
It's the same thing as putting flushable label on a mobile phone. Everything is flushable if you can think of it but it doesn't mean that you should flush everything in it.
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.
This whole video was old news to pretty much everyone, right?
Use water and soap to clean.
Exactly!!
I'm a plumber in San Diego county and what most ppl dont seem to understand is if your house was built in the 50's up to the late 90's your plumbing is done in cast iron and after years of use those pipes close up pretty small. What use to be a 4" pipe is more like 2 1/2" to 3" with rough jagged sides. Those wipe grab on easily to the side of pipes causing huge unnecessary floods in ppls houses causing them to pay thousands to get a plumber to come fix their problem they created. Good for the plumbers but bad for homeowners.
Technically if you flush it and it goes down the toilet then it’s flush-able.
Wish it was clearer they were talking about the US specifically - Other countries have more ubiquitous actually flushable products.
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.)
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.
Millions and millions. How much does it add to each household's sewer bill?
this is why bidet's should be the norm
@VergeScience At 4:15, you say the 95% pass is a much higher benchmark than the industry 60% pass threshold, and highlight those numbers on the comparison table. But it's clearly visible on the comparison table that the industry test uses a 12.5mm sieve for the 60%, whereas the utility test (IWSFG) uses a 25mm sieve -- which makes the industry test a higher bar on that one dimension. How can you be sure that the 60% at 12.5mm is a lower bar than 95% at 25mm?
Who knew that the right approach would be like in developing countries where nothing but poop is flushed.
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.
Shout out to the two products that did breakdown!
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.
thank goodness I'm going into the water treatment side of the water world. "flushable" wipes are still a big problem though.
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)
"Is a world wide everywhere problem" 😂
With how much my bill is for water usage, I’m gonna keep flushing my flushable wipes.
Why don't these facilities file for damages from these wipe companies?
How to monitor the consumer if they're flushing wipes; flushable or not ?
The only flushable wipes I know about that really is flushable is the cottonelle
Well... then come out with flushable wipes. Seems like an easy answer. Or modern houses need bidets.
Ranshin, when we know a budet was actually modern. if it ain't broke...
Cottenelle wipes are the only kind that actually break down like toilet paper, and sometimes better than some premium brand toilet paper.
Maybe the companies who made those wipes and advertised them should pay for the damages.
How sad, still going to use them, literally 200% cleaner with them.
And the kitty litter is basically bentonite which also ends up down the drain
Spray it, don't wipe it (water has always been there, toilet paper is artificial)
Sorry, spray what?
@@dubdadabooda1038 spray it with water
Taheer, spray what actually , c'mon.
Thank you for the education. Top notch work.
Wash yours with water. Be humans.No one came from Mars. Earth has enough water to wash.
Great video, interesting topic.
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
Sounds more like we need better management and automation to deal with such wipes than just removing the wipes altogether. We are humans. Adapt.
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
And that's why wiping business should be replaced by washing business. Please install bidets or similar water sources.
look at cottonelle flushable wipes. in video tests they break down just as quickly and as completely as toilet paper
This was so informative and intersting!
Maybe just fine the companies that lie on their product descriptions
Ever heard of a jet or hose built into the toilet seat ?
The fine to flush. What standard is it.
And how do I know which ones meet/ Exceed your stated slosh bucket requirements.
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 issue. Your samples are super concentrated small jar.
Yet again another reason to leave cities..... the suburbs and rural areas have septic systems.
One billion a year across the entire country? That doesn't sound like an issue to me at all lol
Why are you telling the public this? Why aren’t you going after the companies that make these items and lie about their flushability?
So the public can stop contributing to the problem by using the product in a way that's harmful. If your'e being lied to, you should want to know.
At my home I don't flush anything down the toilet except the three P's: Pee, Poop and Puke!
Why don't companies use the sewage plants test? That is where it has to perform duh!
Cottenelle dissolves completely in water
I bet a lot of us can’t use this model of corruption and apply it to other things, such as medicine, or drugs..
HOLD MY BEER
I feel sorry for the people who are working to clean our society and clean our source of water because of this crisis and there not being appreciated! I salute you! 🙂
New York?
Products go to multiple countries. You only mentioned one state. So that is not a good idea as then it might not be applicable where you live and end up with problems in a different area / country
Why don't the sewage company put sewage thru a shredder first?