It is a question Canada’s Competition Bureau says it cannot answer.
Three years ago, Friends of the Earth Canada and lawyers from Ecojustice filed a grievance with the bureau saying the makers of 20 disposable wipes were falsely advertising the products as safe to flush down the toilet.
In February, the Competition Bureau informed Friends in a letter that it was closing its inquiry because it’s not clear what it really means to be “flushable.”
“There are a number of competing guidelines about when a product can be considered to be disposable in municipal sewer systems,” the letter reads.
Friends CEO Beatrice Olivastri called that “totally unacceptable.”
The Friends complaint was partly based on a study done at Toronto Metropolitan University, which tested 23 different wipes products marketed as flushable and biodegradable and concluded none of them lived up to the claim.
They included baby wipes, wet wipes for older kids and adults, toilet brush cleaning cloths and diaper liners.
Olivastri said the Competition Bureau didn’t contact any of the organizations or experts cited in the complaint, including the study’s authors, or the International Water Services Flushability Group, an association of water utilities and professionals that has developed a standard for what is truly flushable.
The complainants say the only other “standard” that exists was created by the makers of the wipes themselves, and those haven’t been accepted by any municipalities in Canada or any wastewater professionals anywhere in North America.
Citing confidentiality, the bureau won’t say what its investigation found, or who was interviewed.
Julie Baribeau, a spokeswoman for the Competition Bureau, told The Canadian Press in an email while the investigation has ended, the bureau “does not endorse the representations made about ‘flushability’ or the tests used to evaluate this feature.”
Wipes have become the bane of municipal wastewater system operators around the world.
Massive blockages made up heavily of flushed wipes that are glued together by cooking fats and other oils put down the drain, have been dubbed “fatbergs” in Britain. In 2019, a “fatberg” the length of a passenger jet weighing more than 90 tonnes backed up sewers in Liverpool.
Earlier this year, British media reported that an island the size of two tennis courts and made up mostly of wet wipes was actually changing the course of the Thames River.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies in the U.S. said in 2020 it was costing municipal wastewater systems $441 million a year in extra operating costs for cleanup and clogs because of wipes.
The city of Calgary reported getting 7,200 calls to remove blockages from sewers in 2021 and single-use wipes were the biggest culprit.
In the United States a number of class-action lawsuits have been filed against wipes makers.
Nine days before the Competition Bureau in Canada closed its investigation citing a lack of evidence, a U.S. judge approved a settlement in a case against Kimberly-Clark Corp., brought by the city of Charleston, S.C.
Kimberly-Clark did not respond to a request for comment on the Canadian investigation, but in 2019 a spokesman told The Canadian Press the company stood by its claims that its Cottonelle wipes were indeed flushable.
Some U.S. states now have laws forcing manufacturers to include labels on all disposable wipes that they are not to be flushed.
Olivastri said Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne can review the Competition Bureau’s decision to suspend its investigation in Canada.
But in an emailed statement Champagne’s spokesman said the minister will not be asking the bureau to reconsider.
“Investigations under the Competition Act are carried out independently by the Competition Bureau,” the statement reads.
“They hold discretion as to how, or whether, to proceed with a matter based on the evidence before it.”
The British government may be the first to solve the standards issue.
In January the U.K. launched a “call for evidence” seeking policy advice to handle the wet wipe dilemma, including for “mandatory flushability standards” and the possibility of banning certain types of wipes completely.
In June, then-environment minister Rebecca Pow told the British House of Commons the response to that call was “huge” and the department was now working its way through the advice.
“I say to everybody, ‘If you don’t need to use a wet wipe, don’t. And don’t chuck them down the loo,” Pow said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2022.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
