Save our sewers: Experts say don't flush wipes, towels down drain Coronavirus-fueled run on toilet paper prompts poor choices in use of substitutes

Almost every cart had toilet paper in it as customers leave BJ's Wholesale Club on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) Almost every cart had toilet paper in it as customers leave BJ's Wholesale Club on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 in Colonie, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) Photo: Lori Van Buren, Albany Times Union Photo: Lori Van Buren, Albany Times Union Image 1 of / 218 Caption Close Save our sewers: Experts say don't flush wipes, towels down drain 1 / 218 Back to Gallery

BETHLEHEM — Operators of sewer treatment plants and municipal sewer systems are growing alarmed by the prospect that homebound New Yorkers, amid spot shortages of toilet paper prompted by panic buying, will flush bulkier alternatives such as paper towels and baby wipes down the drain.

The results of flushing anything but toilet paper, the officials say, can be sewer line backups in a person’s home or farther along in the system. Additionally, non-flushable materials cause problems in sewer treatment plants and frequently have to be removed manually.

“It’s terrible. It causes huge problems,” said Patricia Cerro-Reehil, executive director of the New York Water Environment Association, which represents sewer treatment plant operators. “It’s a real mess.”

“My advice to people is to only flush toilet paper,” Bethlehem Public Works Commissioner George Kansas said in an email. "If people run out of toilet paper and need to use another product like wipes, they should throw the wipes in the trash after use and not try to flush them."

Despite some advertising claims that wipes are flushable, they really aren’t, said Cerro-Reehil. These products are often made with materials like cotton or synthetic fibers, while toilet paper is only paper.

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This has been a longstanding complaint of public works commissioners and sewer plant operators. But the well-documented spot shortages of toilet paper are likely to exacerbate the problem, they said.

Since the novel coronavirus erupted in national headlines last month, it has led to the well-documented run on toilet paper. While the nation’s supply of trees and paper hasn’t declined, toilet paper makers can only increase production so fast and are hesitant to do so for fears of creating a glut in future weeks or months. Under normal conditions, a family only needs so much toilet paper; once they realize their shelves are full of it, they would stop buying it. And because it is bulky, toilet paper can be expensive for businesses to store.

Non-toilet paper items can clog up the pumps and other mechanical systems in water treatment plants that clean up sewage before releasing the water back into the environment. A blocked residential sewer line, meanwhile, can be expensive to open and may even require excavation.

“The wipes in particular create problems with the pumps getting clogged,” said Angelo Gaudio, executive director of the Albany County Water Purification District. “They don’t break down as easily as paper products."

New York City alone spends an estimated $18 million annually to remove the wipes and other items from its sanitary sewer system, said Cerro-Reehil.

Toilets should be for bodily waste and toilet paper – nothing else, she said. “That’s all that should go down the toilet,” she said.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU