Have you always wanted to nerd out on plumbing and municipal wastewater treatment? No, neither have we to be honest but here we are!
As a purveyor of the finest flushable wipes we felt the need to correct some [Trump voice] FAKE NEWS about the supposed harm these wipes can cause. Yes, there are some fairly gross images and stories like this one from the Washington Post (divers swimming 90 feet thru raw sewage to unclog wipes!? 🤮). These clogs can also cause spillover of raw sewage into local waterways which is not only gross but also harmful to the environment.
At BUTTWIPES we take our commitment to the environment as seriously as we take our commitment to your butt (that is to say, very serious). This is why we’ve gone above and beyond to secure the INDA GD4 flushability certification. Sounds fancy right!? So what is it…
The INDA* (Association of the Nonwovens Fabrics Industry) is an industry body that, among many other things, sets rigid standards for what constitutes flushability. From their most recent guidelines (link here if you wanna get deep in the shit) there are no less than TEN tests that need to be passed to be deemed flushable.
If any of these test fail then it’s off to the rubbish bin you go my nonwoven friend. Needless to say BUTTWIPES passed them all with flying colours, and so you may (and should) flush your wipes guilt free. Our wipes are strong enough to handle your 💩 but when flushed will immediately start breaking down, just like your (far-inferior) toilet paper.
SO WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THOSE POOR POOP DIVERS!? Well, the thing is technically any wipes that do not pass the aforementioned tests should have prominent DO NOT FLUSH messaging on their packaging. While most companies do adhere to this, another problem is consumers just plain ignoring the labels (looking at you people who bite into a cheesestring, instead of stringing it as it was designed). So what causes damage at both the home and municipal level are things being flushed that shouldn’t be: baby wipes, antibacterial wipes, condoms, pads, etc.
Hope this helped shed some light onto a subject you never thought you cared about. And even if you don’t care about it we love you for reading this far. And the earth loves you for using BUTTWIPES.
PS: if you’re not using BUTTWIPES yet, you can remedy that here
*this confused the shit out of us as well until we realised they used to be called the International Nonwovens and Disposables Association, but I guess that just didn’t sound as sexy?