Please Flush But Not Wipes, Napa

NAPA VALLEY, CA — No authoritative, publicly available count shows how many individual wipes Napa residents — or the United States as a whole — produces or consumes annually.

But a Napa County treatment plant collected a large number of wipes Saturday and Sunday as the products disrupted its system and threatened machinery.

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Plant officials said in a post on social media that residents should throw every used wipe in the trash, including products labeled "flushable." The wipes do not break down properly after flushing and can clog the system or interfere with equipment.

A 2026 industry compilation estimated that manufacturers produced more than 45 billion wet wipes worldwide in 2023.

Unlike toilet paper, bonded or entangled fibers help wipes remain strong when wet. That strength prevents many wipes from disintegrating quickly in sewer systems.