In Fatberg Fight, NYC Goes to War Against Flushable Wipes

Harder since it involves changing people's behavior, but even more effective: bring back bidets. Better cleaning, and reduce waste.

  Another option would be a campaign to install bidets

That would be nice. I hate having to use public restrooms due to lack of bidet.

A better start IMHO would be to ban selling those things altogether unless they don't contain plastic or other water contaminants. It's serious enough of an issue that most drinking water contains plastic nowadays.

A lot of these are being flushed from private toilets, fwiw.

Yeah, if we collectively stopped using barbarian toilets and got with the bidet program already this would be a non-issue.

Bidets work way better than the wipes.

Dry wiping not going to do it, difference is night and day. Bidet is the best option. BUT, cities can force manufacturers, one way or another, to design a truly flush-able version.

Yes and they take about 5 minutes to install. No reason not to get one.

I've never understood a hygiene factor of bidets, do you basically wipe your fecal matter with your hands + water? At my office I notice a lot of people don't even wash their hands after they used a toilet, I can't imagine how bad for other's in the office it would be if we had bidets - if they cleaned their butt with their hands instead of a toilet paper and then go to kitchen... We share kitchen afterall with these people...Maybe I don't understand how bidets work?

I've owned 3 different toilet-attachment-style bidets. Two were this style, but after having a kid flood a bathroom ( streams of water are waaay too tempting), I went to an electronic version that has a weight sensor and a spray timeout. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0128T2HQK/ref=oh_aui_se... Cost is worth it if you have children around who may flood the bathroom.

Bidets are also really useful for women after they have a baby and are recovering from the trauma as well as folks with hemorrhoids.

Clean is a relative term. The reasoning is the same that you use to justify washing your hands with a mixture of soap and water, wipes allow you to use this same process to remove the fecal matter from your backside. If you missed while wiping with some single ply at a rest stop, would you clean your hand with only a dry towel? No, you would use soap and water. Even though you can't see large gobs of fecal matter it is still there. You try to make a strange point, the fact that some people don't use water to clean after is generally something that is reluctantly accepted, it is unusual to for someone argue that wiping without soap/water is just fine and to be preferred.

I can't find the link but there's a funny story I read many years ago that goes something like,

A man checks into a hotel after several days of journeying by plane, train, and automobile to [insert some "backward" country]. He's absolutely exhausted. He lugs his bags to his hotel room and crashes on the bed. He'd sleep but he feels disgusting--he's sweaty, stinky, and hasn't had a change of clothes in days. As much as he just wants to sleep, he simply won't feel comfortable and back to normal until he can take a nice, cleansing shower. He walks to the bathroom but to his surprise all he finds is a toilet. No sink, no shower, no bathtub... nothing. WTF!? Maybe it's one of those "European" hotels where the showers are shared. He walks up and down the hallway, but can find nothing of the sort.

Exasperated and exhausted he goes down to the lobby to inquire with the clerk. Demanding to know exactly what he's supposed to do to bath himself--what anybody is supposed to do to bath themselves in this land--the clerk, who spoke little English, was puzzled. The traveler resorted to mime by pretending to wash his head, arms, and body as if using a bar of soap or washing cloth. To this the clerk perked up knowingly and pointed to a large stack of fresh newspapers.

[end of story]

The point of the story was to illustrate how backwards Americans are for using toilet paper rather than a bidet or hose like in many other parts of the world. I've never used a bidet or hose, but it's what prompted me to begin experimenting with flushable wipes. And I can tell you this: once you start, you can never go back.

Using dry paper seems normal and you feel clean. But you'd feel the same way if you simply wiped yourself down with a newspaper every day rather than bathing with water. But the moment you begin bathing with water, the newspaper (or any dry paper product) will always leave you feeling dirty and unfresh. You can't unknow something--the experience is a one-way street. It applies equally or perhaps even more strongly to defecation hygiene as it does to sweat and body oils.

FWIW, I doubt flushable wipes would be sufficient for those used to bidets or hoses. But at least I now understand this.

You don't actually look at your own asshole.

When you have children and wipe their butts a lot you realize how difficult it is to get clean even with a moistened diaper wipe. Even when they start having more normal stools or are old enough to use the toilet (but not to wipe themselves).

Personally I installed a Toto Washlet - one with a built-in water heater. You get used to it quickly and it makes using a standard toilet seem barbaric by comparison.

Lots of things are technically edible but can't be sold as such, I don't see why this would be any different.

Doesn't work in public restrooms where they used the cheapest possible tp.

It's the same in Brazil. All toilet paper goes into a small trash can beside the toilet.

That's disgusting. I don't want to have a bin full of shit stains next to my toilet.

The whole problem is they make massive blobs ("fatbergs") in the pipes and thus never get anywhere NEAR the plants.

The problem can be anywhere downstream of the can. After a vacation, I pulled 12 out of a cleanout T in my yard from a house-sitter we won't be using again...

These articles have been coming out for a while: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg

It was added to OxfordDictionaries.com in 2015.