cleaning wipes in the crosshairs of certain urban areas

Considered “a real scourge” by those responsible for the urban area of ​​Flers, in Orne, cleaning wipes are posing more and more pollution problems.

Cleaning wipes cause regular blockages in wastewater treatment plants and pipes, but also among individuals, more and more of whom are using them since the health crisis, and throwing them into the toilet bowl.

This small gesture has big consequences since 100 tonnes of corks are collected each year just for the urban area of ​​Flers. This costs the community, and therefore the residents who use wipes, more than 100,000 euros each year. This is why the city is launching an awareness campaign against this bad habit of throwing wipes down the toilet.

Very polluting wipes

It is not because the wipes are biodegradable that they are capable of disintegrating in the pipes since the biodegradation process takes a long time. As a result, the wipes clump together and together create large clogs. Obviously, this is not the only problem since most of the time they contain many petroleum derivatives and other chemical and toxic substances.

Cleaning wipes have long been in the crosshairs of consumer associations, but also of the Energy Transition Agency, while each year, 70 billion are sold in Europe. However, no ban is on the agenda, in the name of “reality principle”. Only a liability chain is being developed, meaning that soon, producers may have to pay to clean up the pollution.

England, for its part, plans to ban them completely from next year to preserve its sanitation pipes and water quality. Another principle of reality and proof if any were needed, that it is not impossible, with political will, to throw the wipes not in the toilet bowl, but into oblivion.