The Day, a New London treatment plant found a few small holes in a screen that prevented solid objects from entering the plant. When they looked inside their sludge storage tank they found a mass the size of a Volkswagen bug of congealed grease, cotton & disposable wipes. In another example, New York City has spent more than $18 million from 2010-2014 for wipe-related problems in their system.

With the trend of disposing wipes in the sewer still increasing, it is key to educate the public about the problems that occur when disposing wipes in the sewer system. Specifically, the expenses the municipalities must take on and how much of that cost is being passed on to the public.

Cottonelle & Charmin have come out with “flush-able wipes”, as a substitute for toilet paper. Cynthia Finley (Director of Regulatory Affairs at the National Association of Clen Water Agencies) commented “From experiments we’ve done, (there’s) one wipe on the market that we think might be flush-able.” The NAWCA isn’t interested in banning wipes from being called flush-able, knowing it will just increase the use of baby wipes and cause greater damage.

The NAWCA estimates that the damage caused by wipes is anywhere between $500 million – $1 billion dollars. To try and tackle this issue, the NAWCA has recently launched a “toilets are not trash cans” campaign to properly educate the public on proper disposal practices for various products, including wipes.

Similar to issues such as recycling and global warming, the best way to accomplish these efforts is for the public to take on the initiative as a whole. Providing transparency on the fees that are being passed on to the public can help drive the point home and show how it is not just affecting the municipality, but the general public as well.