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Down the pan...

Down the pan...

By Kevin Pringle and Alan McLaughlin
British Gas, UK.


Introduction

During the first six months of last year the number of toilets that plumbers were called out to unblock had increased by 10% from a similar period in 2003. Some 35,000 toilets were cleared between January and June 2004, placing increasing pressure on an already undermanned plumber population.

We attribute this rise in the number of impassable pipes and eutrophic u-bends to an increase in the availability and popularity of luxury toilet tissues. It seems that recent advances in toilet roll technology are pushing our great nation’s loos to the breaking point… well at least the blocking point.

As a general trend people have become more concerned with hygiene and cleanliness over the last few decades. At the same time (partially as a consequence) the number of products claiming to be of greater hygienic benefit to the customer than their counterparts have increased in number, complexity and prettiness.

Our research, carried out during 2004, suggests that the sharp rise in emergency call-outs to unblock toilets could be attributed to the time that it takes for new toilet paper to break down after flushing.

We studied the ease with which various types of toilet paper to break down in water. Modern products include double quilted tissue, two-ply scented luxury paper, moistened tissue, children’s wipes, tissues impregnated with Aloe Vera and other soothing chemicals and many more.


Our elite scientists separate out the water samples in the laboratoryMethods

We tested a range of products often flushed down toilets, from expensive luxury brands through regular supermarket rolls and down to newspaper, to see how long it takes for them to break down in water.

A sheet of each product was wholly immersed in water and subjected to a low energy dispersion technique (we gently stirred it around). The time it took for the product to break down completely was measured, recorded and celebrated. Any products that hadn’t broken down within five days were removed from the water.


Results

Disintegration times varied greatly between different products, from a matter of minutes to well over five days. Some more traditional varieties of toilet paper, such as the medicated variety, popularly known as ‘tracing paper’, performed relatively well in our tests, taking thirty minutes to disappear completely. However, Sainsbury’s recycled paper took just four minutes to disintegrate, while the cheaper supermarket ‘value paper’ vanished completely in a very impressive three minutes (Table 1).


Table 1. The products tested and listed in order of ease of dispersion using a low energy dispersion method.


Some of the newer products, however, took ages to break down, if they broke down at all. One particularly guilty party is the new range of ‘children friendly’ products, with these ‘my first toilet paper’ varieties faring particularly badly. One such paper aimed at children, Kandoo, failed to breakdown in water even after five days. Similarly, Andrex moist wipes with added ingredients, such as Aloe Vera, also failed to breakdown after five days of trying.


Laboratory scientists kept a close eye on proceedingsDiscussion

On average less than one in five households had to have their drains unblocked last year. From our results, it seems highly likely that it is the increased use of luxury toilet paper is placing our loos under such great strain; these tests revealing that some paper takes days to disintegrate, resulting in local plumbers being called out more often.

It is quite clear from these results that toilet paper specifically aimed at kids might be kind to them, but could be very cruel to your pipe work and drains. Even newspaper broke down quicker then these new brands.

So next time you’re trying to choose from the walls of loo roll down at the supermarket - spare a thought for your u-bend. Some bizarre toilet finds!

We also discovered the most common items that people flush down the toilet or wash down the plughole, some of which were quite a surprise and, indeed, a shock: Tea leaves top the list, in 23% of households, followed by soup (21%), cooking fat (21%), sanitary items (17%), toilet freshener blocks (15%), goldfish (10%), porridge (5%) and paint (4%).

Some other items that were removed by engineers included: A fishing rod, a Johnny Hates Jazz cassette, mobile phones, dead fish, a hedgehog, live bullets, a broken tennis racquet, half an uncooked chicken, an English flag (found in Scotland) and a set of false teeth.


Acknowledgements

Advantica has been providing world class testing, certification and quality assurance services for over 40 years. Developing from their history in the research and development arm of Scottish Gas, they have gained an international reputation for technical expertise, quality of service and in-depth knowledge of gas, oil, and solid fuel product testing and quality assurance.

Reproduced with the kind permission of British Gas


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01 May 2011
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