Sewer “activists” are asking nonwoven fabrics manufacturers to help teach the public not to treat toilets like trash cans.
Editor’s note: Every time my seventh-grade gym teacher referred to a tampon, she’d hold it up, stare us down, and say: “Never, ever, flush this — or the applicator — down the toilet.” Whether she was required to say it or married to a plumber, I don’t know. Didn’t matter. We got the message.
We need to re-educate people about what can and can’t be flushed. Toilets are more robust than when I was in junior high (and no, I’m not telling you the year). Back then property owners clogged their own plumbing; today our sanitary sewer systems are taking the hit.
This article talks a lot about wet wipes, but they’re not the only culprit. Like toilet paper, which disintegrates in about 1 minute, some wipes disperse rapidly. But many other items do not. According to Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) field tests with wastewater utilities, nondispersibles break down as:
- 50% paper towels from public restrooms; they get to the treatment plant relatively intact and build up on bar screens
- 25% baby wipes
- 25% feminine hygiene, household cleaning, and cosmetic wipes; tampon strings wrap around other stuff to create a solid mass of material.
ReplyDelete2/3 rd of this country comes from where they do not have flush toilets. So daily instructions are in order.
I heard that this was what caused that pumping station spill off of Riverside. Rags clogged all 6 pumps.
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