Michigan lawmakers target misleading “flushable” wipes

DETROIT – When it comes to “flushable wipes,” John McKeever knows all the reasons why they really shouldn’t be flushed.

“Because it’s a cotton product, it can get tangled, and then something like a lasagna happens: one thing gets tangled up on the next, and another, and you’re in a jam,” said the Roto-Rooter plumber.

He has been called out many times to save homeowners and businesses from expensive back-ups. “I think it’s pretty dirty, I think,” and he doesn’t mean the clean-up.

McKeever is referring to the advertising messages on products that suggest that toilet tissues are actually flushable. “A $5 product has become a ten-thousand-dollar solution for these people,” he said of one of his toughest jobs at a doctor’s office.

Michigan lawmakers want to change that. In May, they voted to target the wording on toilet tissues that claim to be flushable. Manufacturers in Michigan will no longer be allowed to market the wipes as such and will have to include the words “Do not flush” and a symbol that discourages people from doing so.

Sam Smalley, deputy director of the Detroit Water and Sewer Department, hopes the change will change Michigan residents’ habits. Flushable wipes have become such a problem that the city is launching a PSA to get residents to stop using them.

“They’re taking up capacity in our system that is critical to resiliency and mitigating flood risk,” Smalley said. In Detroit alone, there are 2,400 miles of sewers and workers clean 500 to 600 miles each year. Smalley says flushable wipes make up a large portion of what they clean from the system.

He showed Local 4 a high-resolution image from inside a sewer pipe, where flushable wipes and other items could be seen in the blockage, which blocked about 25% of the pipe. The wipes also cause problems at sewage treatment plants, clogging pumps and other equipment used there.

Smalley hopes the message is clear: “Please don’t flush these things into your body.”