As we were going to press, Suominen confirmed what everybody in the nonwovens industry already suspected—its new U.S. investment will be a wetlaid line targeting, among other things, flushable applications. Calling the investment the biggest piece of its most recent strategic plan, Suominen officials said the decision to focus on wetlaid technology responds to the consumers’ need for “top-notch” cleanliness.

Market watchdogs feel that this need will lead to significant growth for moist tissue paper, or flushable wipes, estimated that this market will grow 6% in the next couple of years. However, this road will not be without its challenges. The wipes market has been shouldering much of the blame for septic clogs around the world, despite the fact that many other products have been found to contribute to clogs.
This negativity seems to have kicked into high gear this spring thanks to a New York Times story blaming flushable wipes on millions of dollars worth of damages in the New York City septic system. These claims have influenced the city council to consider putting a ban on the sale of flushable wipes in the city.

Measures like this one could lead to big trouble for the wipes market, where many companies have invested heavily in this high growth market. In addition to Suominen, Jacob Holm has a new North Carolina line  heavily geared toward flushable substrates, while outside the U.S., similar investments have been made by Aralar in Spain and a.s. Nonwovens in Turkey.

Stakeholders say that the solution to this problem is education. The consumers need to know without pause which products can go down the toilet and which cannot, and this misinformation currently extends far beyond the wipes market into many other areas like feminine hygiene, tissues, towels and more. In fact, a recent analysis of clogs show that 47% of clogs can be blamed on non-flushable paper, while only 8% of wipes marked as flushable were found in the clogs.

Of course, the wipes industry has worked hard on several fronts to put an end to these septic woes. As it has stepped up testing criteria, establishing rigorous standards before a product can be labeled flushable, it has also focused on education and labeling. Wipes that should not be flushed are clearly marked, often in several places, with a standard “Do Not Flush” logo, warning consumers not to put them down the drain.

This spring, INDA expanded these efforts even further. The association has recruited members of the wipes industry to team up with wastewater agencies to form a technical work group (TWG). The group contains six members of each party, along with a mediator, to work out their differences. The findings of this group will help set the stage for updating current flushability guidelines developed by the wipes industry. This next round of guidelines, which will roll out sometime late next year, will look at the pass/fail criteria of the existing standards. Hopefully, the result will be something both sides can be happy with.

Karen McIntyre
kmcintyre@rodmanmedia.com