Toilet paper, paper towels, wet wipes…
Is it okay to flush them directly down the toilet?
They would go in, but should they?

The short answer:

Toilet paper?
– Most likely yes!
Paper hand towels?
– Not advised.
Wet wipes?
– Theoretically yes, but more likely no!

If you are interested in a more complex reality, read on!

Certain people who like a wet feeling when wiping their bottom sometimes or often resort to “wet wipes”. Misled by ignorance and often by the inscriptions on the packaging, they throw the used ones directly into the toilet. At the same time, plumbing companies and homeowners are increasingly encountering expensive-to-repair clogged sewer systems and water leakage problems.

Be aware that there are things that should not go down the drain, things like paper towels and cooking grease that combine together in the drain pipes to form what we might call a “fatberg” – a solid mass, that doesn’t not break down neither by soaking nor under turbulent flow conditions such as those in toilet bowl and drain pipes.

The wipes are wet and look like paper – they should be able to soak and break down, right? Sometimes, it even says so on the packaging! To answer this question correctly, chemistry comes to the rescue. Let’s start with a product that is designed to break down after it gets wet. For example, toilet paper. It’s made from short fibers of cellulose, a polysaccharide that comes from a variety of plant materials, including wood and cotton. The fibers in these sheets hold together tightly enough for you to wipe, but once they get wet, the weak hydrogen bonds that hold them together begin to break down and the sheets fall apart.

On the other hand, a product like paper towels must hold up when wet, even holding liquid. That’s why their cellulose fibers are longer than those of toilet paper. In addition, a glue-like binder, most often an epichlorohydrin-based resin, is added to prevent the paper towels from disintegrating when wet.

Wet wipes are also made of fibers and binders, but the main problem is that their fibers are not always made of cellulose. Those that are advertised as “biodegradable” use binders designed to deactivate when the wipes get wet. The wetting solution they are stored in is rich in positively charged ions that help the binder work. When the wipes are washed and soaked in water, these ions disperse and the binders stop holding the wipes together. But remember, this only applies to those wipes advertised as “biodegradable.” Most wet wipes, and the commonly used baby wipes, are quite resistant to getting wet not only with water but even with some much more aggressive chemical solvents.

On the packaging of those Luxica products that you should not flush down the toilet, you will find the following insignia:

Luxica toilet papers are completely water-soluble and gentle on your sewer system. However, use them wisely and one sheet at a time and never use paper kitchen towels instead of toilet paper!