Are flushable pouch liners really biodegradable?

I was looking online at some ostomy supplies and saw pouch liners. One site said they were flushable, then another said they cause problems for the sewer system. They are supposed to be biodegradable, but a guy posted a video that showed they were not. He had three one-liter bottles and put toilet paper in two and a liner in one. He shook the bottles up for a little bit, and the paper dissolved but not the pouch. He continued to shake the bottle with the pouch up, but it did not dissolve. My question is, do any of you use these? It just seems like they would be hard to get out of the pouch, but the way they showed it, it wasn't. Thanks for any input. I forgot to add he had water in the bottles.

Hello lovely. Thanks for your post as it raises some interesting points for consideration. These pouch liners are obviously non-flushable/disposable without causing problems for the sewage systems and beyond.

It has been found that almost all the wipes we use are primarily made of plastic and whilst some of them may seem to disintigrate in water, they leave the microplastic particles to be flushed, which means they eventually make their way to the sea, where they are partly responsible for killing of many marine species. We can take some personal responsibility for the products we use and how we dispose of them. However, my own feeling is that it is the manufacturers who should be doing more to resolve these problems and perhaps the lawmakers ought to chip-in and help eliminate single-use plastic in future.

Just a thought!

Best wishes

Bill 

Bill,

It's much bigger than that. The majority of the world's petroleum is used to make plastics, not to fuel people's cars. Plastics are used EVERYWHERE. And that's because they offer advantages primarily in food storage and containment that other more biodegradable products do not. But food containment is only the tip of the iceberg, it's used for EVERYTHING. Next time you sort your garbage put everything made of plastic in one bag and when you're done you'll be amazed at the size of the bag. Bottom line here is it's all about money. Plastics have become cheaper to manufacture than paper products, keep food fresher longer (which consumers like and thus support with their dollars) and won't stop being used until society forces that change. Here we commingle recyclables (paper, cardboard, aluminum, metals and plastics) in one can and then regular trash in another. I give my food scraps to my farm animals and find that I never have any other regular trash........it's all recyclables, and primarily plastics. We'd all better wake up to the nightmare waste plastics are causing........but until it impacts regular folks in the wallet it will just continue to be considered a nuisance and not the huge problem it really is becoming. Just a quick thought.......medical waste is almost 100% plastics.....and NOT recycled. It's incinerated. How good is THAT for the environment?

Regards,

Bob

I heard on the news that several big airports are going to quit selling water in plastic bottles. So I am guessing you have not tried the pouch liners.

Hi lovely,

Sorry to hijack your post... no, I've never used the liners.

Regards,

Bob

I tried some samples, but I only used 2. Since the instructions said to flush them, I did, because they claimed they were completely biodegradable. They didn't cause any blockages or problems in our in-house (admittedly old and cranky) sewer system, but I don't have any information on what would happen further down the line, and 2 is not a large sample size. I did not care for the difficulty of using them and getting them just right in the pouch, and difficulties with getting a smooth seal between the pouch and appliance - and they block the filter of the pouch so I was constantly having to burp them! And one of the 2 that I did use filled suddenly and completely to the top - talk about a hot mess! I concluded that they were just too much trouble for me and just not worth it.

Newbie Dana, thanks for the reply. That answers the question I had about using them. I was also concerned about emptying them. I am on a septic tank and unless they disintegrate quickly, it could really be a problem.

Hi. I've used liners a couple of times and I found them inconvenient to wear and I flooded my bathroom twice. Needless to say, I'm done using them!

Hi Newstom, thanks for replying. If you don't mind my asking, is your output thick or watery? Also, are the liners removed from the top or bottom of the pouch?