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?

[mamatobabes]

@Lilyhatesjaz Two words for you. Water Wipes. They are amazing, contain no chemicals and do not sting at all. Only thing I'll use on my DD.

[OhtoblazeswithElvira]

Some of the posts here must be a wind-up - especially the one boasting about holding a baby's arse under the tap, and quite frankly including the OP.

I have birthing injuries and rely on wet wipes to stay minimally clean. If toilet paper is enough for you, lucky you! I imagine people like me in the past would smell, live their lives in soiled underwear and put up with constant infections. Nice

And no I don't flush them. However, 2 things:

-If flushable wipes are causing blockages the companies should be made to pay for the costs. I understand that this has never happened.

-I have heard Andrex stating on radio 4 that they stand by their claim that their wipes are flushable and do not cause blockages.

I use cleaning wipes and will not give them up. Unfortunately I have not been blessed with a Magic Cloth like my MIL's - you know the sort that goes from the muddy floor onto the wet table, then the scummy tap, then the chicken splashes and then the kids' faces and always stays clean and hygienic because you douse it in bleach overnight.

[ChardonnaysPrettySister]

But even if they are "flushable" and don't cause fatbergs where do the go?
Into the oceans where some poor creatures eat them and then die a horrible death.

Is it worth it?

[FakePlasticTeaLeaves]

Yes, campaign to stop the flush!
Don't flush wipes, don't flush tampons.
Tampon flush is bad. Wipe flush is bad. (Thinking that could be potential tag line)

[GruffaloPants]

YANBU, but I do understand how you might conflate wipes with a highly addictive opiate.

No flushing though. That's like leaving needles in the playground.

[shouldnthavesaid]

What do you do if you have a period without baby wipes in public? If I have a drug free period I frequently need to have a strip wash/change of clothes in toilet cubicle (at work etc) as very leaky/flooding issues , surely there's no other option? Can carry around a blood stained smelly flannel in my pocket all day, whereas with a tiny packet of femfresh etc I can slip them into pocket or handbag and carry on. I won't be giving up wipes anytime soon! In public I just wrap them with pad and bin.

[DermotOLogical]

Cheeky wipes are 100x better at cleaning up poo than any baby wipe I have used.

Flushing wipes should be illegal and the government should introduce an environmental tax on single use unnecessary products.

[kali110]

Yes, campaign to stop the flush!
This.
I also get fed up of seeing 'flushable' on wipe packets and telling my mil they can't be flushed yet the wipes say they can..
They are the ones doing a lot of damage.
I won't give up my wipes.
I don't flush them.

[nagynolonger]

In reply to the question, What did people do before baby wipes were around?

If we were at home we used a top and tail bowl with warm water and cotton wool or kitchen roll.

If we were out and about we used baby lotion and cotton wool. It was all folded up in the terry nappy and was flushed away at home.

My DD thinks that carrying a terry full of poo home is revolting. personally I think it's less revolting than sticking nappies in the black bin to go to land fill. We can't put the clock back though and wipes and disposables are here to stay.

We have more chance of doing away with plastic milk bottles etc..

[nagynolonger]

Just to correct what I said above....We used loo roll not kitchen roll with the baby lotion.

[BarchesterFlowers]

Wipes are horrid things, take 100 years to break down in landfill, wreak havoc on marine wildlife. When they make their way into the sea and are eaten by wildlife they remain in their stomach and the creature slowly starved to death. Similar to plastic bags.

My new cleaning firm sacked me in 2004 because I refused to provide disposable wipes, instead I gave them clean cloths and cleaning products. They refused to use them, I refused to buy them.

I bought a load of small rectangular cotton nappies and used those as baby wipes, small waterproof bag, bottle of water, 11 years on those wipes live on as dusters/cleaning cloths.

I think (hope) we will see the same sort of reduction of use technique that we have done with plastic bags in years to come.

[MrsOverTheRoad]

It disgusts me that people use them for general house cleaning. So utterly lazy and self concerned.

[NotAgainYoda]

There are products available that you squirt onto toilet paper in order to make it into a wipe They are a bit expensive at the moment but they do exist as an alternate.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

I think a push to get companies to make them be biodegradable might be good. I've never seen them sold as flushable, and have never flushed them, but I can't really get horrified at fatbergs.

[FiveBoys]

Some of the posts here must be a wind-up - especially the one boasting about holding a baby's arse under the tap, and quite frankly including the OP.

No wind up.

And whats boastful about washing a babies bottom under a running tap? Its what people did for years before wipes came along. You take off as much residue as you can then carry the baby to the sink and wash their bum.

Re birth injuries - from personal experience a bidet or a Shattaf hose is just the job but I prefer the latter. My plumber in the UK told me he fitted them in homes often and finding one to buy was easy. Prior to that I just used to a wipe with loo roll then have a quick wash in the shower from the waist down but I do have a friend who makes a jug out of a big comfort bottle to use after the loo.

When out and about its a different matter but I just use loo roll and a wet flannel I carry with me.

Even if people reduced the amount of wipes they used and only used them when there was no other genuine option it would be something.

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[Piewraith]

A ban on advertising them as flushable yes. A full on ban? Come on. Yes they are bad for the environment but so are disposable nappies, San pro, cups/paper/cutlery, etc. To say a baby should be washed under the tap to save using a wipe, but then it's fine to pop them in a disposable nappy doesn't make much sense.

In a world where people use a towel once then boil wash it (a thing I was shocked to learn about on here) wipes are the least of our worries.

[TammySwansonTwo]

As someone who relies on both morphine and baby wipes, the latter for my twins, I think that's the silliest hand-wringing I've seen in a while.

[OhtoblazeswithElvira]

It disgusts me that people use them for general house cleaning. So utterly lazy and self concerned.

You see what a mean about the wind-up?

FiveBoys you seem to be lacking in imagination. There is nowhere in my house I could have fitted a baby's arse under a tap - perhaps under the shower if I climbed into the bath with baby, which was impossible due to said birthing injuries. There is nowhere in my house where I could fit a bidet or a hose. Showering after each loo visit is not practical - perhaps it is for you, I am sure that OBE nomination will come any time now. With all the other points I maintain my impression of a wind-up.

[FiveBoys]

To say a baby should be washed under the tap to save using a wipe, but then it's fine to pop them in a disposable nappy doesn't make much sense

Ive never used them. They weren't really around when my eldest 3 children were small way back in the mid 70's apart from a huge roll of cotton wool type stuff that you placed in plastic pants. When they became pretty mainstream and I had a load more children I could never have afforded them plus we relied on septic tanks until very recently and disposing of them would have been difficult.

[FiveBoys]

FiveBoys you seem to be lacking in imagination

You have enough for both of us Elvira.

With all the other points I maintain my impression of a wind-up

Thats okay.

[annandale]

I am really sorry but that has made me feel sick - baby lotion all over my bits several times a day? Yuck. I do use wet loo roll or wet flannel at home.

[FiveBoys]

Im sorry but sometimes and at certain times of the month loo roll alone does not get you properly clean

Water does. You can have a jug of water at the side of the loo to wash with.

I wouldn't ban wipes but I do think people have become too accustomed to using them for all sorts of things and its not too hard to cut back on their use. Even one less packet in the trolley every month helps in the long run.

[AngelaTwerkel]

YANBU. "Convenience" shouldn't come at the expense of our sea life and general environment.

See also: straws, plastic cotton buds, plastic toothbrushes ...

But clearly most people just don't give a shit, even though it's their children who will have to deal with this monumental problem.