Can wet wipes block your sewer?

What "flushable" means

It means the wipe will leave the bowl. That is essentially the whole claim.

Toilet paper is designed to lose its structure within seconds in water. Wipes are designed to hold together while wet, because that is what makes them useful. Those two requirements are in direct opposition, and the drain is where it shows.

What happens in the pipe

A single wipe usually makes it through. The trouble starts when one catches on something: a root, a rough joint, a build-up of grease, a slight sag holding water.

Once one is caught, the next one catches on it. They interlock into a dense mat that water still passes through for a while, so nothing seems wrong, until the day it closes off entirely.

Add fat from the kitchen and the two bind together into something genuinely solid.

Why newer estates see it most

In Pimpama, Coomera, Upper Coomera, Pacific Pines and Varsity Lakes the sewer is modern PVC with welded joints. Roots rarely get in, so the pipe stays intact and the blockages that do happen are almost entirely about what went down it.

In older suburbs wipes are still a problem, but they usually have help from a root mat that gave them something to catch on.

The rest of the list

• Sanitary products and nappies, designed to expand and hold liquid
• Cotton buds and dental floss, which weave into anything already there
• Cat litter, designed to clump when wet
• Paper towel, which is made not to fall apart when wet
• Cooking fat, which binds all of the above together