Costco, Target and Wal-Mart have been named in a class action brought by sewage treatment facilities. The retailers manufacture and sell wipes that allegedly are misrepresented as safe to flush, but damage sewage systems, the complaint alleges.
The wipes are labeled as “safe to flush, safe for plumbing, safe for sewer systems and/or biodegradable” but don’t disintegrate after they are flushed, the suit alleged. The wipes are therefore not flushable “under any definition of the term,” according to the complaint. But because the wipes are marketed as safe to flush, consumers continue to discard them into toilets and subsequently damage sewage systems, the suit claimed.