AIBU to start a campaign to ban wipes?

[annandale]

Wipes are an environmental disaster, a key component of fatbergs and sold as a flushable essential when they should be treated like morphine - controlled except for specific medical needs. Anyone with me?

I just wish the things had never been invented and certainly that companies made a lot more effort to prevent flushing.

Totally. The manufacturers ought to be shot for claiming them to be 'flushable'. And don't get me started on the hazards of plastic, particularly around food.

In fact, the problem of sanpro, wipes, and other nasties being flushed would all go away if every house had a septic tank! The idiots flushing them would only pay out to get their system sorted once... problem solved! And if the septic tanks were installed under the house (thereby not taking up outside space), it would really focus the mind. I'm a genius.

Just learn to wipe your arses with loo roll you lazy fuckers

Baby wipes. For babies, you know?

Just been on another thread where someone is using baby wipes every meal to wipe up dropped food from the kitchen floor. Why? Does the kitchen floor have sensitive skin?

There is just this relentless movement of using unbiodegradable, one-use products to do perfectly ordinary things that reusable things can do just as well. (And in the case above, if the poster HAD to use a one-use thing, why not a sheet of kitchen roll, which is at least biodegradable, and even compostable?)

Totally happy to ban the bloody things. The world just cannot cope with this "use it once, throw it away" culture. There is no "away".

We never flush any type of wet wipes down the loo. We have a bin which has a plastic bin liner in it. Even with wipes that have been used to wipe bottoms it doesn't smell. I replace the bag about twice a week. When emptying I tie a knot in it and put it in the general domestic bin

Ive just spent a week in the Uk, in my house, and what to do with my Tena lady had me a nervous wreck. I even had to tell my dad - do not open that bag to check If I got my recycling right!

Babies what?

Wet wipes are a recent invention. Did you think babies had dirty bottoms before that?

I would back a campaign for all wipes to be biodegradable.

I would also like to see biodegradable nappies only and heavily subsidised at that too.

I wish OP. I hate that wipes are used for cleaning everything these days, so wasteful. My grandmother saw me using my Cheeky Wipes and told me when her children were small she took a flannel out in a plastic bag, job done. She had 5 children under 5. Her neighbour apparently uses several wipes to clean her 3yr old every mealtime. That's a lot of wipes

They are not good for babies bums! Do not use them bc of your babies. Environment is optional reason. Dh read the ingredients and banned them from out home. We used sturdy paper towels and water with mild soap. Our babies did not have diaper rash, ever.

Our dc told us that the dr's children that they attended school with were not allowed to use hand sanitizer either bc of the dangerous ingredients.

Please confirm this for yourself if you disagree. I would rather be thought foolish than keep helpful information to myself.

I'm with you OP. Used for absolutely everything other than babies' arses in our throwaway society. Makes you wonder how all those babies survived before wipes....Would also ban excess plastic packaging on fruit and veg, single use water bottles and coffee cups, and plasic straws. Find this shit on the beach most weekends.

sorry OP - i will not be supporting you. Do you have children?! Wipes are heaven sent.

orry OP - i will not be supporting you. Do you have children?! Wipes are heaven sent.

yep, a huge lump of heaven sent nonsense that has to be disposed of somehow.

Nope. Why not just star an anti flushing campaign instead?

I'm another Cheeky Wipes fan. I'm going to persist in calling them wipes because I wipe things with them. That is their exclusive function.

They're really easy to use (better than disposable wipes as PPs have said) and actually cheaper in the long run.

On another thread someone mentioned the flushable wipes aren't flushable, what the heck is that about, manufacturers should foot the bill for fatburgs, they'd soon sort it out then.

Nope. Why not just star an anti flushing campaign instead

But what do you think happens to them if you don't flush them? Even if you bin them they end up in landfill for a loooong time, unless they're compostable. If you think about all the people using baby wipes, facial cleansing wipes, toilet wipes, kitchen wipes that's a LOT of waste.

I think the billions of tonnes of waste being belched into the air and sea by major polluters like China and India might offset your campaign against wet-wipes somewhat. But well done you, for having a bit of a go.

For those querying, Flushable and biodegradable are not the same thing - hold a sheet of loo roll taut under running water and it will fall apart. A wipe won't, and so it shouldn't be flushed because it will bung up your drain. Same with kitchen roll - it's a different grade of material designed to stay intact when wet. They will degrade eventually but in weeks/months/years depending on what they're made of.

The loo roll doesn't biodegrade instantly, but it does break apart into small soft fragments that are less likely to get caught up in the works and allow fatbergs to build up by clinging to the material.

And when I'm Queen the fatberg busters will be first to get knighthoods!

This is a genuine question. What DID people use before wipes to clean babies bottoms?

We have a septic tank. Nothing but paper and poo in my loo.

But what do you think happens to them if you don't flush them

Theres an alternative called 'just not using them in the first place'.

Yes, fiveboys tat was my point

at work, instead of soap/handwash, there is sanitizer. I want to CLEAN my hands, not just kill the germs on them.

Well for a start they trained babies a lot earlier because the whole thing was such a massive ovaryache. Like plonking a baby a few days old onto a potty on a regular basis, in some cases, or at least by the time they could sit solo.

Cotton wool was in use for a while, not sure how far back as surely it's just as bad as wipes.

sorry OP - i will not be supporting you. Do you have children?! Wipes are heaven sent.

Actually, if you have children you ought to be supporting OP, because short lived comfort using throwaway items now means long term discomfort for them in the future.

When they grow up, they won't thank you for using them now.

I'm with you OP. People look at me strangely when I whip out a bottle of water and cotton pads. I only use the biodegradable ones from Waitrose when I really need to.