'Flushable' wipes causing headaches for Colorado Springs Utilities

With the popularity of flushable wipes on the rise in recent years, waste workers with Colorado Springs Utilities have had to adjust to the increasingly frequent appearance of the rags.

"It’s a huge problem in our system,” Operation supervisor Nick Verdi explained.

"They don’t break down like toilet paper does," Verdi said. "It will actually become friends with grease in the collection system and it will create a stoppage more sooner than later.”

That's the other issue: fat, oil and grease. Workers just call it "FOG."

That FOG can jam up pipes all over when people pour things like bacon grease down the drain. When that grease solidifies, it clings to things like flushable wipes, creating things called "fat burgs."

That's why Springs Utilities is reminding people that flushable wipes are not actually flushable and to keep grease and oil out of drains. Their suggestion is to keep it in a can until it has cooled, then throw it away.