4 ms·
It's trivial to stop the fatbergs caused due to flushable wipes if city administrations spend a few minutes thinking about why people use flushable wipes instea
by quadrifoliate 4y ago
It's trivial to stop the fatbergs caused due to flushable wipes if city administrations spend a few minutes thinking about why people use flushable wipes instead of spending time and money in celebrity campaigns [1] against them.
The conclusion is obvious – wiping with dry toilet paper is an inefficient, unhygienic, and sometimes painful way of cleaning yourself after defecation. Hence, people use wet wipes to "feel fresher", as the advertisements euphemistically put it.
The solution is also quite straightforward – go all the way and replace most uses of toilet paper with bidets or washlets, following the lead of smart nations like Japan. Wet wipe usage will automatically plummet. City planners all over the world should be running campaigns promoting bidet usage and partnering with washlet companies instead of sternly wagging their fingers at wet wipe users.
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[1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/14/andy-serkis-plays-talking-anus-in-fatberg-prevention-campaign https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/14/andy-serkis-p...
- ttyprintk 4y agoWe’re way past talking anuses; we’re in class-action lawsuit territory against being able to market the term “flushable”. The buyers and users of wipes are changing diapers on little kids and old people, not on-the-go busy professionals. The immense concentrations in sewers are not correlated with office worker productivity. Wipes are convenient to do that in public. Only a few countries have enough trash cans nearby for the occasion. So, if someone is going to market the term flushable, I want them to be responsible for plumbing fiascos when it is.
- europeanguy 4y agoI agree with your solution. However, changing such an ingrained habit isn't trivial at the society scale.