Flushable loo roll 'clogging sewers'

SO-CALLED biodegradeable toilet rolls are clogging up the sewers of Paris, the capital’s “hygiene tsar” has said.

Mao Peninou, who is the Town Hall's representative for sanitation, said that he believes the Lotus Aqua Tube breaks local sanitation regulations, and that it is encouraging bad habits among Parisiens.

In a letter to the company, seen by the newspaper 20 Minutes he described the cardboard holder as “a glaring example of technological innovation presented as positive when it is not at all”.

His concerns were raised during a visit to Paris’s underground network of sewers.

It prompted him to say that “even if the roll decomposes it is dirtying the water and clogging up water treatment plants.

“Anything that encourages people to throw things in the toilet bowl is bad.If we put this in the right bin it can be recycled.”

Paris spends €212million a year treating waste water, he said.

He told 20 Minutes, “what we fear most is that it adds additional waste into the sewage system”.

Lotus’ parent company SCA Hygiene Products rejected Mr Peninou’s arguments and insists that the Aqua Tube has “no impact” on the environment whether it is “recycled, composted or flushed down the toilet”.

Photo: Terry Johnston