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The havoc it causes to wastewater systems include jamming mechanisms, clogging pumps, and breaking critical machinery.įatbergs can even cause sanitary sewer overflows, where sewage discharges into the environment without treatment. They quickly block the flow of pipes, causing sewer line blockages and immense damage to the system. However, once you get to the cities where sewers are used in greater numbers, a real problem forms.įatbergs are solid lumps of fat and grease that have solidified around items like flushable wipes to create an unmovable mass. Now in an underpopulated place, this may not present too much of a problem. Fats stick to other fats and anything else floating in the sewage waters, like flushable wipes that have not broken down. As they do, they solidify, turning sticky and hard. Once these fats get into the sewage system, they have already started to cool down. Much of the kitchen waste that is poured down the sink is liquid cooking fats. People aren't very careful about what they pour down the sink or flush down the toilet. You may have already heard of the term "Fatberg" before. Once these wipes and their plastic enters the water system, that is when the real problems begin. Plastic that sticks to anything and everything. Like plastic microbeads in our cleaning liquids, once the biodegradable aspects of the product have worn away, you are just left with the plastic. They are mostly made of plastic and pulp. The truth is that while it is possible to flush a wipe down the drain, you really shouldn't! Labeling them as flushable is extremely misleading, mostly because of what they contain.Įven though some brand names like Cottonelle wipes suggest otherwise, wet wipes are not actually made of cotton. This suggests that you can drop them into the toilet and flush them away with no consequences.Ī scientific study into the difference between flushable and non-flushable wipes concluded that there was an “absence of any technical basis that separates flushable wipes clearly from non-flushable.” In the wipes studied, there was no real discernable difference in terms of thickness, composition, and weight. The biggest half-truth that the wipes sell themselves on is the idea that they are flushable. Read on to discover why flushable wipes, despite their usefulness, are actually causing major stress for our sewage and wastewater systems and what we can do to help reduce the problem. Many of these wipes claim to be flushable, but often they end up blocking our sewer pipes and waterways, and this is causing a tremendous problem. That is a staggering number of wipes entering our waste management systems every day.