Water Sector News
A snapshot of clean water stories from publications around the country, updated daily!
Startup with first biodegradable wet wipe moves from London to Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Twipes, a 2022 43North competition winner, is a bio-tech materials company selling the world’s first truly flushable and biodegradable wet wipes. The company moved from London to Buffalo this past winter.
Twipes co-founder Ellenor McIntosh said the idea came from a friend, who told her how he blocked up his toilet three times in a year with “flushable” wet wipes and that his girlfriend had been flushing products down the toilet as well. McIntosh said the couple came from Cyprus, where everything — including toilet paper — is put in a bin next to the toilet rather than flushed, which is why they were more comfortable flushing everything.
“I told him, ‘Don’t do that, wipes aren’t flushable,'” McIntosh recalled. “And he was like, ‘No, it says it on the packet, they’re absolutely flushable.’ And I said, ‘Turn the packet over and have a look at it, because I promise you it’s not flushable.'”