Please stop flushing flushable wipes. As oxymorons go, terms like “bittersweet” or “freezer burn” or “jumbo shrimp” may be “old news” to you. But to your local plumbing pro, one of the most cliched contradictions to throw on the pile is “flushable wipes.” Apologies if this tears at the very fabric of your comprehension of the universe, but those handy pre-moistened towelettes you buy at the store with the prominent label reassuring you of their flushability? That may be a whole load of something else you flush down the toilet. Debate over flushable wipes’ flushability or lack thereof centers on how well they break down upon being saturated with water relative to, say, toilet paper, which disintegrates quickly. See for yourself by holding a flushable wipe under the running water faucet and seeing how long it takes to fall apart versus doing the same with toilet paper. Manufacturers and trade associations, meanwhile, have said that legitimate flushable wipes have been unfairly lumped in with non-flushable ones like baby wipes, makeup wipes and paper towels, or that studies have been otherwise inconclusive. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a plumber out in the field who would tell you it’s advisable to flush “flushable” wipes — unless maybe it’s some sort of shady job-security play. Even if they make it down the drain — out of sight, out of mind, right? — they often get caught in bends in pipes deeper into your plumbing, or accumulate into hulking masses of fetid filth causing larger problems for your municipality’s sewer infrastructure. So if you can’t flush something that’s supposedly flushable, what can you flush? That’s easy: If it comes off of that roll mounted next to your toilet or … out of you. If it isn’t one of those — and you still see fit to flush it after watching this — you’re committing an act of willful negligence, and that’s … oxymoronic. #diy #howto #homemaintenance