People flush some pretty weird things down the toilet. Just ask Metro 麻豆传媒映画and municipal sewage workers.
They鈥檝e discovered all kinds of odd things 鈥� from cellphones and hard hats, to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure, coins, sunglasses, parts of car door, pieces of lumber and even dead-and-bloated former family fish.
They鈥檝e yet to come across any grown-up alligators that were flushed down the toilet as babies, but they do routinely come across an even bigger menace to Metro Vancouver鈥檚 sewer system: flushed disposable wipes.
Wipes can clog sewer lines, pumps and even your home鈥檚 pipes. While the label may say 鈥渇lushable鈥� there鈥檚 no such thing and there are no regulations about what manufacturers can say about their products.
Unlike toilet paper, wipes don鈥檛 break down when they鈥檙e in the sewer system. So what happens to them? Well, it鈥檚 kind of gross. They mix with grease and harden into blockages that are called 鈥渇atbergs鈥� that cause clogged sewer overflows that can damage basements, businesses and the environment.
Cleaning out blockages caused by wipes, grease and other unflushables costs Metro 麻豆传媒映画and individual municipalities around $2 million a year.
With so much money being flushed down the toilet because of the blockages, Metro 麻豆传媒映画recently launched an eight-week 鈥溾�� education and awareness campaign.
鈥淧eople flush some pretty weird things, but it鈥檚 the mundane items like wipes that cause the big problems,鈥� said Metro 麻豆传媒映画Utilities Chair Darrell Mussatto. 鈥淚t costs us millions of dollars each year to clear clogs and keep the pipes flowing.鈥�
The playful campaign 鈥� which is themed 鈥淎dult Toilet Training鈥� 鈥� focuses on reaching women in public washrooms, in Cineplex theatres, through social media and at select Shoppers Drug Mart stores.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to reach our target audience in relevant places like bathrooms and at point-of-sale,鈥� said Mussatto.
The Never Flush Wipes campaign was developed after a two-month pilot in Pitt Meadows. The results of the pilot campaign鈥檚 effectiveness on changing residents鈥� flushing habits were measured using a public opinion survey and by monitoring the Baynes Road Sewage Pump Station.
Fifty percent of the women surveyed remembered the 鈥淣ever Flush Wipes鈥� campaign, but Metro 麻豆传媒映画was able to see the results of the campaign in the sewers themselves.
Using a 鈥渨ipes catcher鈥� that was specially designed for this project (picture a large tennis racket), some interesting wipe-flushing stats were collected: before the pilot, every hour an average of 18 wipes entered the sewage pump station in Pitt Meadows. During the campaign that number dropped to 12 and after it dropped to six per hour.
Metro 麻豆传媒映画also plans to track the number of flushed wipes to measure the success of the current campaign.
鈥淲e are heartened by the results of the pilot and hope to see similar results region wide,鈥� said Director Mussatto. 鈥淲e encourage everyone to be mindful of what they flush down the toilet.鈥�
As well as wipes, there are some other common culprits that shouldn鈥檛 be flushed, including: facial tissues, diapers, cotton balls, tampons, dental floss, paper towels and even hair - many of which bind together to block pipes.聽
