Toilet-Paper Giant Sues D.C. Over Flushable Wipes Ban

WASHINGTON, DC — The corporation that produces toilet paper and other hygiene products filed a lawsuit against The District Friday in after to strike down legislation that bans labeling disposable products as "flushable" if they are, in fact, not flushable.

The Nonwoven Disposable Products Act, passed by the council unanimously on Dec. 6, 2016, "prohibits the advertisement, packaging, or labeling of any nonwoven disposable product as flushable, sewer safe, or septic safe unless the nonwoven disposable product is flushable." Under the legislation, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser can impose civil fines and penalties to sanction violations.

Kimberly-Clark — the corporation behind Kleenex, Kotex and other personal care products — argues in the lawsuit that its flushable wipes will not clog city toilets, and that there is no standard for what is flushable and what is not.

The legislation says that many "nonwoven disposable wipes" such as baby wipes, facial tissues and household cleaning wipes do not dissolve quickly in water, easily clog pipes and lead to backups in basements and overflows into streams.

According to the legislation, the wipes often wrap around and stop the motors in the city's sewer pipes, which keep sewage flowing through the system. When these products arrive at the Blue Plains Treatment Plan, DC water is forced to filter the wipes out of the system, or risk further damage to the plant.

The corporation says Kimberly-Clark flushable wipes "meet or exceed widely excepted industry guidelines for flushibilty and the Federal Trade Commission's standards on flushibility."

The corporation's attorneys say that the "fatally flawed" law "unfairly and unwisely" restricts consumers’ right to choose products “that have been proven to effectively meet their needs without causing or contributing to clogs."

The lawsuit states that, "Under the First Amendment, government regulation that discriminates against targeted speakers and disfavored content is presumptively invalid and subject to heightened scrutiny."

The lawsuit is filed against the city, Mayor Bowser, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, D.C. Department of Energy and Environment Director Tommy Wells and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority.

City council members argue that without clear labeling, residents will not know what they can and cannot flush down the toilet.

“People will flush them down the toilet and what happens is, it clogs up the drains so severely that we spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to deal with that. So they are offloading the cost of what they’re doing onto the public through the water and sewer fees,” council member Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, told WTOP.

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