What’s wrong with flushing ‘flushables’?

When our children were both babies/toddlers we were told nappy liners were toilet flushable. How wrong that was manifested itself by blocking a drain in our house, causing me to have to lift and clear it. just before we both went out for the evening.

So I’m in complete agreement with regard to labelling. As Bishbut says I doubt we’ll ever change the behaviour of those who simply can’t be bothered but hopefully that number will be dwarfed by the sensible and thoughtful, so we can achieve a mess-free society – to an extent, anyway.

Perhaps every household should have a sewage filter before the waste joins the main sewage. If somebody is flushing wipes, nappies or sanitary towels it will only affect themselves.

I think Frenske’s idea of a sewage filter in the domestic system is certainly worth exploring. It might not be the answer everywhere [blocks of flats, office buildings, etc] but it would be a neat way of stopping undegradable waste from entering the public sewers.

Victoria’s experience shows that there are still places where the foul water waste and the surface water drainage end up in the same sewers. Most older streets probably still have this arrangement.

It is alarming that a quantity of non-flushable waste products discharge into the sea – the actual estimated amount is not given, just that it is 50% more than in 2014. To some extent this factor depends on rain water peak volumes when the drainage system cannot cope and, because of the mixing of foul and surface water waste I mentioned above, the storm drain outfalls carry a quantity of solid waste into rivers and the sea where it washes back onto beaches. While not entirely harmless at that stage I suspect it is unsightly rather than hazardous. Nevertheless, these sewage disposal problems should have been eradicated by now.

Water companies do have to spend a lot of money passing raw sewage through screens at the treatment works to trap the material that has not broken down in transit. Given that in normal dry weather conditions the flow rate in the sewers is quite low with virtually no agitation, there is not much chance of the thicker products breaking down once they have entered the sewer until they reach the treatment works. The water companies then have the task and high cost of removing the screened waste and disposing of it safely. And people wonder why water bills are high.

I certainly agree that the information on packaging should tell people not to put the product down the toilet and advise on how to dispose of it properly [in a plastic bag and then in the general rubbish bin or chute]. Unfortunately an attitude of “out of sight out of mind” has grown up whereby putting something down the toilet is a way of ridding it from the premises. If only . . . it can lie in the pipe for days until there is enough flow to push it along a bit further. One of the best things I ever bought was a set of rods and many neighbours have been grateful for my efforts. It amazes me that people even think they can put nappies down the loo but they certainly do. People repeatedly flushing the toilet to clear waste products also leads to higher water and energy consumption.

Because there are so many wipes for this or that domestic problem, of which some are claimed to be flushable, it is assumed by many that any wipe can be disposed of in this way – including bathroom cleaning wipes, disposable dusting cloths, floor wipes, and so on. I notice that the packaging on Andrex Washlets [moist toilet tissues] says “Flushable and biodegradable. For best results flush 1-2 wipes at a time” – but who knows what goes on with the most private of functions? And what else are we expected to do with them? – most house bathrooms do not have a special receptacle.

I hope the “international flushability standard” arrives soon without excessive cogitation.

I wish you had taken some photos. A few photos with captions would have a much greater impact than all those well-intended words.

Totally with Frenske on the individual household having a sewage filter before the waste joins the main sewage. You’d make the mistake once…

To misquote De Gaulle, tackling laziness and stupidity is too vast a programme, so we need to tackle manufacturers (a recurring theme, isn’t it?). How do we make them stop making things that end up in the oceans’ garbage patches and elsewhere? If they lie when they claim their products are flushable when they’re not, how do we make them pay dearly for it?

WRc have being looking at the issue of flushable wipes for some time as they are known to cause many thousands of sewer blockages. Basic disintegration tests can demonstrate which “flushable” products do breakdown once in the sewer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hca-rQMjMm0

I’ve always thought that Greece and Turkey have the right idea with their bins beside the toilets to chuck in the things that don’t come out of you. This convo vindicates the practice.

I have just read about Victoria’s unpleasant experience in the introduction. I know of an incident where a blockage resulted in sewage causing a fish kill despite the efforts of the Environment Agency to oxygenate the contaminated water.

I am intrigued by the ‘useful links’ at the end of the introduction – best reusable nappies and best disposable nappies.