• Login
    • Join
  • Subscribe Free
    • Magazine
    • eNewsletter
    Checkout
    • Magazine
    • News
    • Exclusives
    • Applications
    • Technology
    • Market
    • Other
    • Top 40
    • Buyers Guide
    • Hygiene Directory
    • More
  • Magazine
  • News
  • Exclusives
  • Applications
  • Technology
  • Market
  • Other
  • Top 40
  • Buyers Guide
  • Hygiene Directory
  • Current / Back Issues
    Features
    Editorial
    Columns
    Digital Edition
    Southeast Asia Edition
    eNewsletter Archive
    Editorial Guidelines
    Subscribe Now
    Advertise Now
    eBook
    Top Features
    Fibers Report

    Household Wipes Market

    Sustainable Hygiene Products Gain Ground

    Moist Toilet Wipes Lead 2024 Growth, Baby Wipes Decline, and General-Purpose Wipes Bounce Back

    Dissolvable Wipes. Will They Be the Industry’s Next Big Thing?
    Company Cameo
    Financial News
    Machinery Equipment
    New Products
    Nonwovens News
    Patent Review
    People in the News
    Supplier News
    Top News
    Live From Shows
    Top News
    Ontex Introduces bioSAP in Baby Diapers

    Applecrumby Launches Chlorine-Free Diaper

    Essity Recognized by CDP for Sixth Consecutive Year

    New York to Mandate Diaper Labeling

    Autoneum Develops Adhesive-Free Automotive Carpet
    Nonwovens Insights
    Online Exclusives
    Adult Incontinence
    Absorbent Core
    Antimicrobials
    Apparel
    Automotive and Transportation
    Face Masks
    Chemicals / Adhesives
    Construction
    Contract Services
    Diaper, Baby
    Electronics
    Feminine Hygiene
    Fibers
    Filtration
    Flame Retardance
    Geotextile / Agrotextile
    Home Products
    Hygiene Film/Components
    Industrial / Institutional
    Inspection / Quality Control
    Machinery and Equipment
    Medical
    Wipes

    Video Bite: Technical Absorbents Finds Success in Self Healing Geo Liner Market

    Ontex Introduces bioSAP in Baby Diapers

    Applecrumby Launches Chlorine-Free Diaper

    Autoneum Develops Adhesive-Free Automotive Carpet

    Premier Care Industries Expands Manufacturing Operations
    Air Through Bonding
    Airlaid
    Carded/Carding
    Chemical Bonded
    Composite
    Meltblown
    Needlepunch
    Nanotechnology
    Spunbond
    Spunbond/Spunmelt
    Spunlace
    Thermal Bonded
    Wetlaid

    Softbond, A.Celli Collaborate on Spunbond Line

    Freudenberg to Showcase Advanced Foam Replacement at FOAM Expo

    Reifenhauser Reicofil GmbH & Co.

    Enka Tecnica GmbH / Reifenhauser Heinsberg GmbH

    Sandler Group
    China
    Eastern Europe/Russia
    India
    Middle East/North Africa
    North America
    Pacific Rim
    South/Central America
    Turkey
    Western Europe

    Premier Care Industries Expands Manufacturing Operations

    A Look At Megasoft—Asia's Vertically Integrated Hygiene Producer

    CIDPEX Middle East to be Held in September

    Pelsan Tekstil to Add Films Production in North Carolina

    Citadel J – From Round Wipes Roll to Revenue
    Associations
    Contracts / Awards
    Education
    Facilities / Capacity
    Green / Sustainability
    Legal / Regulatory
    Market Data
    Flushability
    Mergers and Acquisitions
    Product Improvement / Innovation
    R&D/Basic Research
    Shows / Events

    Premier Care Industries Expands Manufacturing Operations

    Nippon Shokubai's U.S. Group Company Acquires ISCC Plus Certification

    Joa to Acquire Cellulose Converting Solutions

    Smithers Predicts Growth for Nonwoven Battery Separators

    CIDPEX Middle East to be Held in September
    Chart
    Companies
    All Companies
    Categories
    Company Profiles
    Add New Company
    International Buyers Guide Companies
    ELSNER

    Alliance Machine and Engraving

    Dukane Center of Excellence for Personal Care, Nonwovens and Packaging

    Herrmann Ultrasonics, Inc.

    Valco Melton
    Brands
    Brand Owners
    • Magazine
      • Current / Back Issues
      • Features
      • Editorial
      • Columns
      • Digital Edition
      • Southeast Asia Edition
      • eNewsletter Archive
      • Editorial Guidelines
      • Subscribe Now
      • Advertise Now
    • Breaking News
    • Buyers Guide
      • All Companies
      • Categories
      • Company Profiles
      • Add Your Company
    • Applications
      • Absorbent Core
      • Adult Incontinence
      • Antimicrobials
      • Apparel
      • Automotive and Transportation
      • Chemicals / Adhesives
      • Construction
      • Contract Services
      • Diaper, Baby
      • Electronics
      • Feminine Hygiene
      • Fibers
      • Filtration
      • Flame Retardance
      • Geotextile / Agrotextile
      • Home Products
      • Hygiene Film/Components
      • Industrial / Institutional
      • Inspection / Quality Control
      • Machinery and Equipment
      • Medical
      • Wipes
      • Face Masks
    • Technology
      • Air Through Bonding
      • Airlaid
      • Carded/Carding
      • Chemical Bonded
      • Composite
      • Meltblown
      • Needlepunch
      • Nanotechnology
      • Spunbond
      • Spunlace
      • Thermal Bonded
      • Wetlaid
      • Spunbond/Spunmelt
    • Market
      • China
      • Eastern Europe/Russia
      • India
      • Middle East/North Africa
      • North America
      • Pacific Rim
      • South/Central America
      • Turkey
      • Western Europe
    • Other
      • Associations
      • Contracts / Awards
      • Education
      • Facilities / Capacity
      • Green / Sustainability
      • Legal / Regulatory
      • Market Data
      • Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Product Improvement / Innovation
      • R&D/Basic Research
      • Shows / Events
      • Flushability
    • Top 40 Companies
      • Chart
      • Companies
    • Online Exclusives
    • Slideshows
    • Hygiene Directory
      • Brands
      • Brand Owners
    • Experts Opinions
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Infographics
    • eBook
    • Whitepapers
    • Events
      • Industry Events
      • Live From Show Events
      • Webinars
      • Live From Asian Connections
    • Jobs
    • Resources
      • Suppliers Gallery
      • Literature Showcase
      • Web Showcase
      • Home Page Showcase
    • About Us
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Use
    Capitol Comments

    FTC Ruling, Potential Bans, and Litigation All Pose Serious Industry Challenges for Flushable Wipes

    Wipes’ role in sewage woes continues to be scrutinized.

    Peter Mayberry, contributor07.20.15
    As well reported in both the trade and general media over the past few weeks, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entered into a consent order with Nice-Pak Products, Inc. on May 18 to settle FTC charges that Nice-Pak made unsubstantiated claims about a private-label brand of wipes which the company manufactured for Costco, CVS and Target. In this case FTC took issue with claims made about a “moist toilet tissue” manufactured by Nice-Pak and labeled as being “safe for sewer and septic [systems]” when flushed in a standard commode – claims which Nice-Pak was unable to substantiate.
     
    FTC also took issue with the fact that Nice-Pak provided its trade customers, including retailers, with “information to make such unsubstantiated claims.”

    FTC has jurisdiction over advertising aimed at consumers in the U.S., and was basically created in 1934 by President Woodrow Wilson to better ensure U.S. consumers aren’t duped with false information and/or misleading claims about products they are offered for sale.  
    Partly to that end, the commission first published green advertising guidelines for industry in 1993 to offer a path forward when it comes to making claims about environmental attributes for products offered to consumers. The hallmark of these guides, which were most recently updated in 2010, is that claims of environmental benefit or superiority must be scientifically substantiated.  

    Companies who don’t heed these guidelines run the risk of monetary fines at the low end of the enforcement spectrum and that their products will be taken off the market at the high end.

    According to FTC, Nice-Pak violated Federal law by “misrepresenting that a certain formulation of its wipes: 1) are safe for sewer systems; 2) are safe for septic systems; 3) break apart shortly after being flushed; and 4) are safe to flush.”  FTC further asserts that Nice-Pak’s tests for making flushability claims “did not reflect, real world household plumbing or septic conditions.”

    The commission vote on the complaint was a unanimous 5-0 decision, but FTC agreed to take public comment on the matter through June 19. If the consent order is adopted, which appears likely, Nice-Pak will be on the hook for up to $16,000/violation if the company makes similar, unsubstantiated claims going forward.  

    In response to the agreement, Ad Age magazine is reporting that Nice-Pak “won’t change its marketing at all, because it had already discontinued the product covered by the deal and has tests to substantiate its current wipes are safe to flush.”
    This leads to the real issue in all of this – the difference between flushable materials and dispersible materials.   

    The concept of flushability is relatively new and, in the nonwovens industry, has largely been driven by voluntary standards created collaboratively by INDA and EDANA. These standards, now in their third iteration (they were last updated in 2013) are currently based on seven different tests, each of which must be passed in order to claim flushability.  

    According to a summary of the INDA/EDANA standards published last year in the National Law Review, a product can be deemed “flushable” if evidence indicates that it meets three conditions: 1) it must clear toilets and properly maintained drainage pipe systems when recommended usage instructions are correctly followed; 2) it must be able to pass through wastewater conveyance systems and be compatible with wastewater treatment, reuse and disposal systems without causing system blockage, clogging or other operational problems; and 3) it has to be unrecognizable in effluent leaving onsite and municipal wastewater treatment systems and in digested sludge from wastewater treatment plants that are applied to soil.

    All this, of course, is different from the standards most valued by water treatment facilities – which are formally known as Publicly Owned Treatment Works, or POTWs – throughout the country as well clean water advocates, wastewater industry associations, municipal managers and others who contend absolutely nothing should be placed in a toilet unless it is dispersible.  As with standard toilet paper, these folks want to ensure any product consumers are told is safe for the toilet will completely break apart during the flush process.  

    As noted by Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, this flushable/dispersible conflict is at the root of the FTC consent agreement with Nice-Pak.  

    “The evidence didn’t back up Nice-Pak’s claim that their wipes were safe to flush,” she says. “If you claim a product is flushable, it needs to flush in the real world, without clogging household plumbing or sewer and septic systems.”

    Indeed, over the past couple of years at least three sets of field tests have been conducted by POTWs and wastewater managers in which wipes labeled as “flushable” (i.e., presumably capable of meeting INDA/EDANA standards) simply don’t perform as advertised.  
    In one of these field tests, for instance, a consumer wipe labeled as flushable appears to be completely intact after 100 flushes in a mocked up residential toilet.  

    A similar field test conducted in Vancouver, WA, involved flushable wipes dyed different colors so they could be readily identified and then deposited under manhole covers at three separate points leading to the water treatment plant – the furthest point being 5,000 feet away.  After 45 minutes in the sewer system – including a trip through the pumps – the dyed wipes were completely intact save for some rips and tears.  

    Other forms of non-dispersible material are routinely tossed into household and commercial toilets, of course, and can wreak havoc with residential plumbing systems and POTWs alike. But consumer products labeled as being “flushable” are now low hanging fruit for cost recovery efforts, municipal and/or statewide bans (several of which have been proposed but none of which has yet to be enacted), and other restrictions.    

    Of these unpleasant prospects, cost recovery appears the biggest challenge to industry at present. An audit conducted in Vancouver, WA, for instance, indicates that POTW pumps which were intended to last 30 years had to be replaced within 10-15 (resulting in about $900,000 of unnecessary costs) and that annual expenses for deploying crews to “de-rag” pumps ran nearly $80,000. The city also paid about $30,000/year in extra energy caused by running clogged pumps. Municipal lawsuits seeking to recover even a portion of these costs appear to be coming into vogue.    

    Ad Age is also reporting on a recent Supreme Court decision that could have a major impact in this arena. Specifically, the Court refused to hear an appeal from a lower Federal court in Alameda County, CA, which ruled that companies who market pharmaceuticals must fund drug-return programs meant, in part, to keep prescription drugs out of local POTWs.   

    One POTW director is quoted in the article with his observation that this Supreme Court decision “may open the door for municipalities to bill marketers for damage flushable wipes cause to sewer systems.” Considering New York City alone estimates that flushable wipes have been responsible for more than $18 million in added costs over five years, the article notes this development could quickly bankrupt the flushable wipes industry in the U.S..

    Another gloomy cloud on the horizon, according to ABC News, is a federal class-action lawsuit filed by a doctor in New York against Kimberly-Clark and Costco after he experienced plumbing problems in his home. “[K-C and Costco] should have known that their representations regarding flushable wipes were false and misleading,” the complaint states while seeking damages of at least $5 million.  The suit was filed on February 21 in the Eastern District of New York and represents 100 people around the country who have experienced plumbing problems in their homes after using flushable wipes.  

    If this suit is successful, it’s nearly impossible to imagine how many more similar suits will follow, especially in light of FTC’s recent action.
    Related Searches
    • K-C
    • retailers
    • nonwoven
    • INDA
    Related Knowledge Center
    • North America
    • Associations
    • Wipes
    Suggested For You
    INDA Offers On-Demand World of Wipes Conference Program INDA Offers On-Demand World of Wipes Conference Program
    Improving the Sustainability of Nonwoven Products in a Cost-Effective Way Improving the Sustainability of Nonwoven Products in a Cost-Effective Way
    Wipes Labeling Act Signed in Illinois Wipes Labeling Act Signed in Illinois
    Responsible Flushing Alliance Adds Board Members Responsible Flushing Alliance Adds Board Members
    World of Wipes Draws 475 to Atlanta World of Wipes Draws 475 to Atlanta
    Oregon to Require Do Not Flush Labeling on Wipes Oregon to Require Do Not Flush Labeling on Wipes
    Nonwovens Go Natural Nonwovens Go Natural
    Household Wipes Report Household Wipes Report
    World of Wipes Returns as In-Person Event World of Wipes Returns as In-Person Event
    What You’re Reading on Nonwovens-Industry.com What You’re Reading on Nonwovens-Industry.com
    Papel Aralar Starts Up Flushable Wipes Line Papel Aralar Starts Up Flushable Wipes Line
    Lotus Teknik to Add Wetlace Line Lotus Teknik to Add Wetlace Line
    Nice-Pak Receives EPA Approval for Disinfecting Wipes Nice-Pak Receives EPA Approval for Disinfecting Wipes
    The Private Label Market The Private Label Market
    Smithers Report Tracks Market Boom for Nonwoven Wipes Smithers Report Tracks Market Boom for Nonwoven Wipes

    Related Breaking News

    • Associations | Shows/Events

      INDA Offers On-Demand World of Wipes Conference Program

      Thirty-one speaker presentations available for purchase
      08.30.21

    • Green/Sustainability

      Improving the Sustainability of Nonwoven Products in a Cost-Effective Way

      Interest in greener alternatives is widespread around the globe
      Rahul Bansal, Birla Cellulose 08.12.21

    • Legal/Regulatory | Wipes

      Wipes Labeling Act Signed in Illinois

      Bipartisan law that requires proper labeling on non-flushable wipes will go into effect on July 1, 2022
      08.10.21


    • Wipes

      Responsible Flushing Alliance Adds Board Members

      Andritz and Dude Products join organization
      07.21.21

    • Associations | Shows/Events | Wipes

      World of Wipes Draws 475 to Atlanta

      Event was the first in-person conference in the nonwovens industry in 500 days
      07.20.21

    Loading, Please Wait..
    Breaking News
    • Radienz Living Adds to Board
    • Premiere Care Expands Operations in Texas
    • Ontex Introduces bioSAP in Baby Diapers
    • Ahlstrom Receives Offer for Abrasives Business From Munksjö
    • Applecrumby Launches Chlorine-Free Diaper
    View Breaking News >
    CURRENT ISSUE

    June 2025

    • Fibers Report
    • Household Wipes Market
    • Sustainable Hygiene Products Gain Ground
    • Hygiene Goods Continue to Drive Expansion in Fluff Pulp
    • View More >