Those flushable sanitary wipes aren't flushable, regardless of what the label says.
They were always popular, but after the pandemic, sales of sanitary wipes skyrocketed by 75 percent. And so have sewer blockages.
Those little pre-wetted wipes are just too sturdy to break down and dissolve as toilet paper does. Instead, in sewer systems in cities around the world, they go through the pipes, sticking together with other wipes, then getting all glued up with fat until they form a nasty fatberg.
One fatberg under London was the size of a double-decker bus.
And those fatbergs are everywhere.
In Charleston, S.C., Bloomberg News reports that pre-pandemic the city had about two clogs per month in its pump stations. That increased to 16 clogs per month per pump station in 2020. Charleston nearly doubled its fatberg budget.
In cities across America, water utility officials say wipes cause up to 60 percent of the clogs.
The moral: Trash it, don't flush it.
