To think that we need to stop flushing anything down the toilet except for toilet paper.

[WishILivedInThrushGreen]

metro.co.uk/2022/06/16/calls-for-mandatory-do-not-flush-labelling-on-wet-wipes-16840997/

Wipes are often described as biodegradable but they don't biodegrade in the sewer. They biodegrade in landfill over a long period of time.

I really welcome Yorkshire's stance on this and it would be hoped that all councils and water companies will clamp down on the use of them.

There needs to be better labelling on packs of wet wipes and a shift away from using them, particularly as many contain micro plastics that leach into waterways.

If you need to use them then put them in a bin so that councils can incinerate or bury them where they can decompose.

That's a handy way to remember it.

There's no need to be insulting about it. Clearly some people haven't got the message.

O hope my newish upstairs neighbour is reading this. Manhole for these flats is just beneath my ground floor balcony. Drain cleaners called 4 times in 8 months due to her flushing wipes. It makes me bloody cross.

I remember at school being taught it was fine to flush tampons and cardboard applicators but not plastic ones. Considering most people don't get any education on period products after school I can see why you'd just keep doing what you've been taught.

Went right off tampons once I learned you can't flush. Horrible things to dispose of, no matter how much toilet roll you wrap them in it leaks through. Definitely prefer the mooncup.

I expect more people are following it than you realise. It really is common knowledge not to flush tampons down the toilet.

Nope. I'm as confident that they aren't following it as you are confident that they are!

YABU to all those saying toilet wipes shouldn't be available. For some people those flushable toilet wipes are a necessity. If you're lucky enough to not suffer from a digestive condition like crohns, UC, IBS etc, then you're probably blissfully unaware of how painful they can be. Sadly their bowel movements are often very messy and require a lot more clean up than a healthy persons. Even just wiping the bare minimum of times to get clean with dry tp, leaves many sufferers with incredibly irritated, chapped anuses with multiple tears in the skin that rip open and bleed quite profusely every time you use the toilet (so multiple times a day) and even the lightest touch with dry paper feels like sand paper and leaves them crying in pain. Away from the toilet the pain is still constant, can't sit down, and they can be in that condition for months at a time during bad flare ups as they never get a break for the wounds and skin to heal. Similar to how chapped and painful your nose gets when you have a cold and have to keep blowing/wiping, but your anus. With the toilet wipes, they can get clean so much quicker and easier with far less wipes, causing so much less irritation and damage to the anus. The improvement in quality of life is incredible.
I'm sure they are similarly just as helpful for people with bowel incontinence, and also give people with various physical and mental health issues the dignity to be able to clean themselves adequately after the toilet than require the help of another person.

As for the flush vs bin debate, i pay 3 times the price for the more expensive ones because they're certified fine to flush, biodegradable and approved to do so by water companies. I'm not about to put anything with literal shit on it anywhere but down the toilet to be flushed away. No way am i having a bin full of shitty wipes sitting in my bathroom, nor then carrying it through my house and having shitty wipes in my outside bin. That's incredibly unhygienic and plain disgusting.

Wipes can of course be available for those who need them, but clearly marked as non-flushable.

Even the ones that claim to be flushable don't break down quickly enough - they are still causing problems.

Of all the adjustments needed for disability, putting a bin beside your own loos, using the menstrual products bin in public loos, and bagging where there is no bin at all (until you do come across one) seems to be at the cheap/easy end of achievable

Stop doing what you were “always taught”, then. It’s stupid.

I'm with you on that. There's just no need for these toilet wipes either as it's much cleaner to use water from a jug to wash your undercarriage whilst sat on the loo. I'm pretty sure that's what Muslims do so it's not a weird idea(?) It's cheaper and obviously far better for the environment too.

Thank goodness for threads like these then, that get the message out to people who genuinely don't realise.

In a lot of countries you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet either so having a bin for it is standard, it's really not that bad we are just not used to it.

@AlmostAJillSandwich sorry I read your post after I'd written my pro ban one and I can see your point. However, would it be an option to wash with cleaner and water whilst on the loo instead of using wipes, or would that cause issues? I know using soap a lot would be drying, but I'm thinking more along the emolient cleaners line.

I remember the toilet roll shortage very well from the 70s, it's one of the reasons all these years later that I have quite a large supply of loo rolls permanently in the house, which was handy when Covid first hit and they became quite hard to get hold of.

In some places it is the norm not to put anything down the loo, not even toilet paper. They have a bin next to the toilet to contain the soiled tissue. I first encountered this at an hotel in the Greek Islands.

I find the wipes you are describing very useful at times but wouldn't dream of flushing them despite the manufacturer's claims. Disposing of them is no worse than disposing of baby wipes that have been used on a baby's shitty bum.

I use the flushable wipes when I’m on my period and then I wrap them in the towel and bin them.
i know they aren’t great for the environment but for 3 days a month I have to to feel clean in between showers.
im sure there’s videos on line that show how badly these so called flushable wipes actually break down in the toilet. So badly you may as well flush a brick.

I bought some Femfresh wipes when I unexpectedly got my period whilst out. It says on the packet that you can flush them and although I didn't, they actually came out of the packet in bits (like soggy loo roll) so I'm guessing they wouldn't be too harmful?

As an aside, you don't need arse wipes. You can buy sprays which you can spray on to toilet paper which make it a wet wipe.

I completely agree. I think Fine to Flush is so misleading as they are still bad for the environment. And so unnecessary - cloth wipes and water work so much better! I find wet wipes just smear everything around or else dry out.

I was taught to flush sanitary products down the loo as a teenager. There was no bin in our bathroom. I can't remember when or why I stopped but needless to say, I know better now!

While I agree with not flushing anything but biological matter, I do wish there was more empathy and understanding for people living with disabilities or serious health conditions, such as IBD (as noted above).

It doesn't take a genius to realise that there occasions where health issues are a major issue that make some of these practices very difficult for people at best.

Also worth pointing out that landfill is as equally bad for the environment - just that you don't have people manually clearing blockages in pipes.

And a note of flushable/biodegradable items. Often they are biodegradable, but only in perfect conditions.
Eg - many biodegradable items cannot break down in landfill because they not in an environment where they're exposed to, for example, oxygen or other things needs for deterioration to occur. I imagine its the same for dissolvable wipes.

All very well them dissolving in water but if it takes 10m+ and by that time they've joined other solid matter in sewers they may not be able to - or may take too long to do so - before creating a blockage.

Even when you know the problems it causes?

I think that sanitary towels have significantly changed since the days when they are marketed as flushable. They used to be lightly packed cotton wool wrapped in soft paper. It was like having a mattress in your pants, a wet soggy mattress. And they would fall apart as you tore them. Probably still not a good idea to flush but we didnt get blocked drains. Times have changed. But many women would have been taught to flush.

I flushed tampons for years because I was taught to at school (in the 1990s) and signs telling people not to flush use mealy mouthed references to 'sanitary products' which I thought meant sanitary towels.

I can easily believe there are many people who believe it's ok to flush tampons because they've never been told otherwise, and the same goes for the wipes.

I wrap mine in a bit of loo roll and put in a biodegradable nappy bag then in the bin

I totally agree and also people need to be further educated on biodegradable, I'd like packaging etc to have a lifespan date for biodegradation on it, I mean everything is biodegradable, a brick is biodegradable but it may take 400 years for it to happen but it still will biodegrade IYSWIM

I think there's also the embarrassment factor that makes people not want to stop flushing. It may well be normal in some countries but I'd just find it really humiliating to have to put visibly soiled toilet paper in an open been that could be seen by others.

I know this because we moved by a beach, so we see where it washes up.

But someone my age probably hasn't read the instructions on a pack of tampons in decades and they used to claim they were flushable.

Also it's only recently that I learnt how frequently the water companies flush all that waste out to sea. I never dreamed that this was the case. I mean, it's quite preposterous that sewage companies can legitimately do this.