ISO/DIS 18671

Test methodologies for assessing products suitable to be flushed down a toilet and appropriate labelling

Scope

The purpose of this Standard is to set the criteria for the characteristics of products that may be disposed via the toilet and to outline appropriate labelling requirements.

The intent of the proposed Standard is to ensure that material discharged down the toilet:
• Should not adversely affect wastewater collection and treatment systems.
• Should not adversely impact the environment and discharged wastewater treatment plant products.
• Is dispensed from clearly labelled packages and containers with clear communication to consumers to avoid the impacts outlined above.

The scope of the proposed new standard is for products designed for, marketed for and commonly used in a bathroom setting or for toileting purposes. These products would have a significant potential to be disposed via the toilet, with the exception of toilet paper, which is currently the remit of ISO TC6 SC2. The testing requirements of the standard would apply to products designed or marketed as being suitable for toilet flushing. The labelling requirements would apply to all products with a significant potential to be disposed via the toilet.

Specifically, the Standard would seek to provide test methods that demonstrate that:
• The product is able to clear the toilet bowl and drain line prior to exiting the boundary of a customer property (Drain-line Clearance Test and/or Snag test);
• The product is compatible with the pumps, screens and other mechanical equipment in the sewerage network and wastewater treatment system (Pump test – potentially domestic and separately a municipal pump test, and/or a disintegration test);
• The product is compatible with flows in small diameter sewers, disintegrating in a manner that should avoid blockages within these sewers (Disintegration test);
• Any residual product is compatible with settlement in a wastewater treatment process (Settling test); and
• That the material is compatible with the biological systems within a typical wastewater treatment plant (Bio-disintegration test)
• That the material does not persist in the environment (Fibre composition test or manufacturer attestation).

In addition, the standard will seek to provide clear labelling, consistent with ISO labelling requirements, of products that successfully meet the requirements of these test methods. The labelling will seek to increase customer awareness of appropriate disposal practices for products used in a toilet setting.

Examples of the proposed draft content for the Standard are provided for the labelling and drain-line clearance test components only. Given there are four different potential input documents that could formulate the final standard and there is a need for international agreement on which of these documents is used and how they will be incorporated into the final document, the information in Annex 2 are only examples of the possible content.