Toilet paper also requires specific processing of the waste water. It’s normally screened off and sent to landfill when it reaches the treatment plant, but I imagine many countries wouldn’t have this infrastructure.
It’s still screened off and sent to landfil. “dissolve” isn’t really possible with paper, just breaking into smaller parts.
I’m no expert, but I’m guessing the rules are about the pipes between flushing and treatment, as I can imagine a slurry of toilet paper bits is a lot less likely to create blockages than a mountain of wet wipes.
Yes, that makes sense. Not dissolve in the technical sense of form a solution in water, but more of the layperson sense of “disintegrate” into that paper slurrey and not cause blockages in pipes.
We all know that if you have too much paper and not enough water, it will block a pipe. But given typical usage, it should be safe for USA-code pipes since it disintegrates into that “slurrey.”
TIL that the water treatment plant screens it out and disposes of it! I imagine this is part of the process where they screen out other solids as well
It mentions the screening that removes anything bigger than 3mm, including toys, passports, and cash.
This isn’t my local one, my local had a massive failure recently and is a bit fucked so I can’t seem to find the page they have on it, but the page also talked about screening off the solids and mentions toilet paper specifically. My local one also sends the biological solids (the shit) to landfill after water has been removed, which is different than the above one that is apparently using that to turn a quarry into a park.
And just to show it’s not only here, the wikipedia page talks about screening as the first step too.
Toilet paper is biodegradable, and laws around it may also be because of the widespread use of septic tanks which will break down the toilet paper. But septic tanks only work for very low volumes. As mentioned in the above video, wastewater leaves 12 hours after arriving, so the process has to be very quick. You aren’t going to want to pump toilet paper pieces out into the harbour where people swim and lay on the beach, so it’s gotta be screened off and sent to landfill.
Saw a sign saying “dont throw toilet paper into the toilet” in a middle eastern country last summer and was very confused.
The pipes are very narrow then and there is risk of clogging
No shit
it is more about the disgrace it makes water treatment, it clogs the treatment system, making the costs of treating the water much higher
Toilet paper also requires specific processing of the waste water. It’s normally screened off and sent to landfill when it reaches the treatment plant, but I imagine many countries wouldn’t have this infrastructure.
In the USA anyway toilet paper is legally required to dissolve in water within a certain time frame. Maybe this is not the case in other countries
It’s still screened off and sent to landfil. “dissolve” isn’t really possible with paper, just breaking into smaller parts.
I’m no expert, but I’m guessing the rules are about the pipes between flushing and treatment, as I can imagine a slurry of toilet paper bits is a lot less likely to create blockages than a mountain of wet wipes.
Yes, that makes sense. Not dissolve in the technical sense of form a solution in water, but more of the layperson sense of “disintegrate” into that paper slurrey and not cause blockages in pipes.
We all know that if you have too much paper and not enough water, it will block a pipe. But given typical usage, it should be safe for USA-code pipes since it disintegrates into that “slurrey.”
TIL that the water treatment plant screens it out and disposes of it! I imagine this is part of the process where they screen out other solids as well
Yeah, there’s a video about it here: https://www.watercare.co.nz/home/about-us/what-we-do/wastewater
It mentions the screening that removes anything bigger than 3mm, including toys, passports, and cash.
This isn’t my local one, my local had a massive failure recently and is a bit fucked so I can’t seem to find the page they have on it, but the page also talked about screening off the solids and mentions toilet paper specifically. My local one also sends the biological solids (the shit) to landfill after water has been removed, which is different than the above one that is apparently using that to turn a quarry into a park.
And just to show it’s not only here, the wikipedia page talks about screening as the first step too.
Toilet paper is biodegradable, and laws around it may also be because of the widespread use of septic tanks which will break down the toilet paper. But septic tanks only work for very low volumes. As mentioned in the above video, wastewater leaves 12 hours after arriving, so the process has to be very quick. You aren’t going to want to pump toilet paper pieces out into the harbour where people swim and lay on the beach, so it’s gotta be screened off and sent to landfill.
ask any water treatment plant worker and they will tell you, that is a dream, toilet paper shouldnt be flushed at any situation
Are you in USA?
Flushable wipes are a lie, but government employees have told me that toilet paper dissolves.
toilet paper is always flushed in the USA unless you have a sceptic system and then it depends.
Makes perfect sense
Flushable wipes are NOT