Pardon the potty talk, but we have no choice, because there’s a problem we’ve got to tackle.
When you flush a toilet, the waste travels through pipes and winds up at 14 gigantic treatment plants run by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, which process 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater daily.
They can handle a lot. What they can’t deal with is baby wipes and makeup wipes and disinfectant wipes. Unlike toilet paper, their plastic content does not break down; they clog sewer systems from individual apartment buildings to the treatment plants themselves.
Having to spend $19 million a year on its own clogs, mostly caused by wipes (also, kitchen grease), DEP is launching a public service campaign to urge New Yorkers not to flush wipes — any wipes. Unless it comes right from your body or is toilet paper, toss it in the trash instead (that includes dental floss and feminine hygiene products).
While a federal judge stopped the District of Columbia a year ago from deciding which wipe makers could use the label “flushable,” the judge did suggest other approaches that don’t curb First Amendment commercial speech.
The industry-backed Responsible Flushing Alliance (yes, that’s the real name) says that 7% of wipes sold contains no plastics and are 100% degradable in the sewers, it’s the other 93% that are causing the expensive damage to buildings and pipes. The safest course is to just always use the garbage pail rather than the toilet. No ifs, ands or butts.
