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Comment by TheAdamist | Hacker News Reader

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.

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