I’ll just say it. I don’t care what the package says.
Flushable wipes are not flushable.
Half joking here, but I think plumbers pay to get that word printed on the box. Because every one of those wipes is a future service call.
Don’t take my word for it
In 2019, researchers at Ryerson University in Toronto (now Toronto Metropolitan University) tested 101 different wipes. 23 of them were labeled “flushable.”
Not one broke down the way it’s supposed to in their sewer test. Not one. Zero for 101.
Toilet paper falls apart in water. These things don’t. They hang around, snag on stuff inside your pipes, and pile up into a clog.
“But it says biodegradable”
Biodegradable means it breaks down eventually.
Your pipes don’t have eventually. That wipe has a few seconds to get through your drain line, and it’s not going to fall apart in time.
So why is it still allowed?
Good question. I don’t get it either.
The government has stepped in a little. In 2015 the FTC went after Nice-Pak, a company that made wipes sold under store brands at places like Costco, CVS, Target, and BJ’s. The FTC said the company couldn’t back up its “flushable” claims, and Nice-Pak agreed to stop making them without real proof.
In 2020, Washington became the first state to require “Do Not Flush” labels on wipes that aren’t flushable. A bill in Congress called the WIPPES Act would do the same thing nationwide. It was introduced in 2025.
Meanwhile, the word “flushable” is still on plenty of packages. So it’s on you.
Use them. Just don’t flush them.
Look, wipes are great. Little kids, medical stuff, whatever you need them for. Use them.
Just throw them in the trash. Put a small can with a lid next to the toilet. Done. Problem solved.
While we’re at it, stop putting Fabuloso in your toilet tank
There’s a TikTok thing where people pour Fabuloso, the purple cleaner, into the toilet tank so every flush is pretty and smells nice.
This isn’t Halloween. It’s your toilet. It has one job.
Plumbers have warned that cleaning chemicals in the tank eat away at the rubber flapper and seals and the plastic parts of the fill valve a lot faster. Then people can’t figure out why the flapper rotted out. Gee, I wonder.
Your tank is supposed to have plain water in it. That’s it.
Bottom line
Want a messy, expensive problem later? Keep flushing them.
And when the plumber finally shows up to pull a wad of “flushable” wipes out of your line, check his shoes before he walks in.
Sources: Toronto Metropolitan University (2019), FTC (2015), NACWA (2020), WIPPES Act, S.1092, Consumer Reports (2023).