Bill at state legislature would ban disposable wipes in all of Hawai'i.
Bill at state legislature would ban disposable wipes in all of Hawai'i. Dissolvable Wet Wipes
A bill at the state legislature that seeks to ban disposable wipes is moving through committee hearings.
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- A bill at the Hawai'i legislature that seeks to ban disposable flushable wipes is moving through committee hearings. The purpose of House Bill 268 is to protect the plumbing. If passed, it would prohibit the sale or distribution of disposable flushable wipes in the state (and define what is flushable).
At Makiki Christian Church Preschool, the teachers go through disposable wipes like, well, somebody's business.
"I don't know what we'd do without them. I don't think it's a good thing. As a teacher, wipes are really important," teacher Gwen Imai said.
Imai has a toddler class now but when she took care of infants, she remembers, "We would look at the diaper and think, 'Oh my goodness, this is a five-wiper. We had anywhere from a one-wiper to a five-wiper.'"
She and her colleagues say if the bill to ban disposable wipes passes, the you-know-what will hit the fan.
"We changed 100-something diapers a day in our classroom. I can't imagine how many wipes we went through. They were our lifeline," Imai said.
Plumbers say the wipes do clog the drains.
"10% to 25% of the clogs we clear are flushable wipes. A lot are other stuff, but it's a decent amount," said Cooper Hazzard, owner of Diamond Head Plumbing.
But it's not the wipes' fault that people aren't properly discarding them. Hazzard says the wipes should simply be relabeled.
"My biggest issue is that they're marketed as flushable," he noted, adding that banning them is not the number one solution for "Number Two."
The bill says even wipes labeled "flushable" do not readily break down like toilet paper and can clog pipes, causing costly backups and spills. One environmental group testified in favor it.
"Anybody who has seen what happens at the wastewater treatment plant- employees have to clean out wads of wipes called greaseballs covered with fat, clogging the system that needs to be removed," Ted Bohlen of Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition said at the committee hearing.
Others don't support the bill. The Retail Merchants of Hawai'i sent in testimony saying, "Flushable wipes need to be more durable than toilet paper for what they are intended for - they are designed to remove solid waste from our bottoms."
There's also a trade group called INDA, or the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.
"Studies have shown 98% to 99% of the materials clogging such sewer systems are hygiene products not labeled as flushable. Specifically, these studies show that consumers are improperly flushing non-flushable products like baby wipes, surface/sanitizing wipes, as well as non-wipes products like paper towels, feminine hygiene products, and fats, oils and grease," Director of Government Affairs Wes Fisher testified.
The bill passed out of the Energy and Environmental Protection committee Thursday, over to the Commerce and Consumer Protection committee to further flush out the details.
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