My daughter and I just tried. Had a package that said you can flush them. Tried to dissolve them in the sink. Not possible. Which come out of course, makes sense: The very reason for these things to exist is that they don’t fall apart when wet.

In the United States the packaging plainly says you can flush them, even though you can't.

Similar in the UK. People take "fine to flush" on the packaging to mean "fine to flush as many as you like at a time": https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-61922999

Quite what these people are using so many wet wipes for is beyond me. Changing babies and removing make up are the only common uses I can think of, but why not just put them in the bin?

From people I know they also use them as toilet paper in cases where one is raw or otherwise sore. A bidet (or bidet seat in cases where that's not possible) would solve that problem outright.

I have a bidet, when I don’t have one, I like to shower, if I don’t shower, I’m potentially walking around with poop and paper caked in my butt crack all day. It’s disgusting, what’s wrong with society ? Why doesn’t everywhere have a bidet or similar ?

The only answer I can really offer is that in those parts of the (developed) world where bidets are not common, society functions just fine and doesn't seem to be negatively impacted in any way by their absence. I don't have a bidet and I don't always shower immediately after doing my business. Am I "potentially walking around with poop and paper caked in my butt crack all day"? I guess, technically, yes. But it's not something I've ever noticed and it's certainly not something anyone else has ever noticed.

I never noticed it until I bought a bidet. Now I do.

It's amazing to what one can get used to. My washlet has a heated seat, now regular seats feel very cold.

> I’m potentially walking around with poop and paper caked in my butt crack all day.

Do you simply not know how to wipe your bum properly? My two-year-old has the basics of it, even if he hasn't quite got his technique down yet.

It might depend on your digestion and amount of hair on your bum, but there are sometimes when using even dozens of paper wipes does not seem to fully clean the bum and additional wipes still come away dirty (to the point where they also come away with blood due to the skin having been irritated by repeated wiping with dry paper). A bidet solves this neatly, of course so would a shower or using wet wipes.

Same experience for me.

It’s also worse if you spend significant time using a bidet, then find yourself without one.

Ouch.

“Fine to flush” means physically it will go down the toilet. It does not mean 1) safe for pipes; 2) safe for septic; 3) easily filtered from any treatment plant; 4) biodegradable; 5) dissolvable

It is just bullshit marketing, but technically it’s true. Flushable means “can be flushed,” not that it’s a good or responsible idea.

Maybe they are different brands with different compositions that make it possible or not possible

It's like when you see things labelled as compostable. Almost everything is technically compostable, but many substances require conditions which can only be achieved when composting on an industrial scale using heat and oxygen. Until there are legal definitions, it doesn't matter if some people are doing the right thing when others will take advantage.

i remember an episode from the sitcom “trailer park boys” [0] where one of the characters throws all their garbage in a local lake. his logic was that he never sees it again, so the lake recycles it somehow. i found the situation very funny and totally realistic.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_Park_Boys

I think the most effective school field trip would be a trip to the landfill to show everyone what happens when you throw something “away”.

In 6th grade we took a trip to the sewage treatment plant.

As is the case with most things, there is probably some power-law in effect. 90% of the population likely disposes of the wipes appropriately. But 10% of people probably cause 90% of the issue.

Market economy rule and binary thinking made that obvious. Everything has a price, therefore everything will be acquired, used and abused, dumbed down, disposed of, flushed away, before becoming the next market headline: Entrepreneur makes millions while extracting massive profits out of used wet wipes!

A way out? Nope. It's a maddening process we all have to fully and completely enjoy, ad nauseam, to the very end.