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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flushing wet wipes

52 replies

Graphist · 14/06/2019 22:06

I see a lot of threads about why it’s bad to flush wipes down the toilet and to put them in the bin instead. I don’t understand how that’s better as then we are creating more rubbish and adding to the land fill sites instead?

OP posts:
TrixieFranklin · 14/06/2019 22:08

They account for 80% of blockages in the U.K. costing around £100m a year to sort out for a start!

WoogleCone · 14/06/2019 22:09

Because they get trapped in the sewage pipes, mixed up with all manner of other detritus and they contribute a hell of a lot to 'fatbergs'. Google that, they're gross and it takes many people and a lot of time and money to clear up the mess!

TrixieFranklin · 14/06/2019 22:09

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46188354

LauraPalmersBodybag · 14/06/2019 22:09

They clog up sewers and add to fatbergs. Things that go into the loo need to be biodegradable.

DontMakeMeShushYou · 14/06/2019 22:10

It's so that you don't block the sewer system. The environment isn't the only consideration when you dispose of your rubbish.

EmeraldShamrock · 14/06/2019 22:10

Blockages. Excrement over flow, stinking streets.
It is best not to use wipe wipes at all.

spugzbunny · 14/06/2019 22:11

Where do you think they go when you flush them down the loo? They don't disappear!

PocaNinja · 14/06/2019 22:11

Are you joking? They block up the sewers and cause sewage flooding. Some bedtime reading below

www.scottenglishplumbing.net/blog/4-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-flush-wet-wipes-down-the-toilet

UrsulaPandress · 14/06/2019 22:12

Lesser of two evils. Landfill rather than sewers.

🤔

redexpat · 14/06/2019 22:12

Mine go to an incinerator, not landfill.

ColaFreezePop · 14/06/2019 22:16

If they don't block your own sewage pipes they may block the one you jointly share with your neighbours. If that doesn't happen them they contribute to fatbergs in larger sewers.

Only put the 3 Ps down the toilet.

Oh and some non-recyclable household rubbish is incinerated to produce energy for electricity and shipped to other European countries like Norway especially.

Topseyt · 14/06/2019 22:17

They cause blockages in the drainage and sewage systems. They do not biodegrade and they do not break down at all the way toilet paper does.

They contribute hugely to the build up of the horrendous fatbergs in sewers, which workmen have to actually physically dig out.

Sparklesocks · 14/06/2019 22:18

They block the plumbing, and if they don’t they get stuck to fatbergs in the sewers.

I used to flush them as an idiot teen, until my poor dad had to unblock our loo with a plunger...

MissClareRemembers · 14/06/2019 22:42

I was talking with some mums from school recently. One of them has a macerator in her downstairs toilet and was talking about having to remember NOT to flush tampons. When I pointed out you should never flush tampons, wipes etc all the other mums were incredulous. They ALL did it! I couldn’t believe it.

bellabasset · 14/06/2019 22:48

OK I live in a terrace of 6 houses. For ages I complained to my neighbours about their kitchen overflowing down my path. A couple of weeks before Easter it stunk and my neighbour brought home some drain rods couldn't clear it. So he opened the drain cover and the culprit was the supposedly flushable toilet wipes. He bagged them up. So basically I d had sewage running down my path into the next house!

Next morning the house next door has sewage by the back door. Frantic neighbour looking up her insurance. I'd checked the previous eve that shared drains were the responsibility of the water company. They come out with cameras and pressure nets to clear it. They try to find the drain in the road, they decide the main drain goes through next door. I remind my neighbour that she has a drain under the gravel. The gravel is cleared, they jet wash but aren't happy they can follow the drain. They will send an engineer but call them in case if problems.

Within 2 weeks sewage is coming up from the outside drain lucky me I'm a foot higher. The workmen are there from 3 to midnight. No luck. The following morning two people arrive, they decide they cannot try to flush without a pump. My garden has a large piece of old allotments where there is a path through to a road They agree that they can get the tanker parked there and run 65 metres of 6inch pump through the lane across the old allotment path down my garden and into next door. They clean up and jet wash Cameras go down the pipes, but no luck. They decide to dig up my neighbours front garden to jet wash from there no luck. By this time engineers come out. Its decided they need a more powerful pump so another tanker arrives. The tanker will remain on site to pump out until the blockage is cleared. By Friday they decide they have to dig up my neighbours kitchen and the pipe is under the floor in her house. They are moved into a hotel for a week. It isn't till Sat afternoon the fatberg is jet washed out, 4 days later, it goes rattling up the pipes in my garden. The pipes in next doors are replaced and the floor filled in. As there was an open sewer in the kitchen a tram us sent in to deep clean.

The engineers then proceed to dig up the road to put s manhole cover in the road for future access. So 10 days from start to finish because people don't respect the three Ps - pee, poo and paper (toilet papet)

Fat, J cloths, wet wipes!

Osirus · 14/06/2019 23:26

We buy flushable wet wipes.

They STILL go in the bin. Our waste is incinerated in our LA.

There’s no excuse.

TheInebriati · 14/06/2019 23:28

Not all councils use landfill. Our waste is incinerated and used to generate heat.

TheInebriati · 14/06/2019 23:30

I think its weird to believe things you flush down the toilet just disappear. They don't, they end up having to be dealt with somewhere else.

IHaveBrilloHair · 14/06/2019 23:31

I know not to, but when I was a teen I'm sure the packets of sanitary towels said to rip in half length ways and flush, also tampons were ok to be flushed.
Am I misremembering?

Pinkmouse6 · 14/06/2019 23:34

My DC’s flushed baby wipes down the loo against my knowledge, cost £100 to fix the blockage. That’s just one reason.

Thesearmsofmine · 14/06/2019 23:35

@IHaveBrilloHair

I remember the Tampax lady coming to school and saying tampons could be flushed. I didn’t realise that you weren’t supposed to until I read it on Mumsnet a couple of years ago(I don’t use them anyway)

Pinkmouse6 · 14/06/2019 23:36

brillo you are correct and this is precisely what I did when I started my period. I didn’t know but my DGM had a saniflo toilet so I clogged it up with a pad and she had to call a plumber out Blush. I was twelve and absolutely mortified.

user1471430558 · 14/06/2019 23:42

As per PP wet wipes should never be flushed. If they actually get to the Sewage Treatment Works they will be removed by the initial mesh use to catch “rag”. The rag is sent to landfill so one way or another it gets there and you binning it better than blocking!

ginghamstarfish · 14/06/2019 23:48

Amazing that there are still folks who don't know that toilets are not rubbish bins.

IHaveBrilloHair · 15/06/2019 00:50

Tbf some wipes are marketed as flushable, why would anyone question that?