Dehydrated toilet paper tablets?

[Alligator]

it's in the fine print on page 2
link http://wysiwipe.com/index.html

What is in the fine print? I don't see a page 2. Different browser maybe or device.

They really don't want to say what it is made in to.

Is the wipe compostable?

• Yes. Wysi® is made of pulp fibre which is cellulose and when it reaches the end user, there are no added chemicals to contaminate composts and, institutional customer utilizing waste diversion programs benefit if they have commercial composting facilities. Being compostable and biodegradable makes it suitable for community green waste programs, or in your garden compost with your household organic waste.

They keep saying it is 100% cellulose. That's like saying it's made from 100% grain. What grain are we talking about? What cellulose is used? Could be bamboo, could be wood.

Then they tell you they don't add anything to the end product. What's the end product? Different end products can be made from 100% cellulose, one such is tp another is rayon.

Plastics actually have a compostability standard from the ASTM (it's a commercial standard though). I don't think these are plastic but I also think they may be rayon too.

[Five Tango]

To Clarify-the link I posted is the fine print you will find from their site by pressing the green "learn more" button which I am defining as "page 2".
They make the claim that the wipe is biodegrable etc.

Note: I DO NOT support that claim which is why I would never leave one not properly disposed.Ditto for tp buried in the woods-not a good idea.However,the WISI is a pretty awesome wipe and you could re use one a few times in a pinch.

[HeartFire]

OK, I had to google this - yes, they are rayon, and if you don't know much about rayon, it is made from scrap wood with some of the nastiest chemicals in the world. Rayon is not made in the USA due to the manufacturing process being so toxic. (if you're really interested in the subject, read the book "Fake Silk"). is considered a 'cellulose' fiber - like cotton and linen (from plant fiber) but unlike those 2, it is man made. Rayon absorbs more water than cotton or linen and becomes stiffer/stronger when wet than other materials. These are the same as those other 'camp towels' that are often given away free a lot of places. And yes, they are compressed into the coin shape while wet and then dried that way.
'

[Alligator]

To Clarify-the link I posted is the fine print you will find from their site by pressing the green "learn more" button which I am defining as "page 2".
They make the claim that the wipe is biodegrable etc.

Note: I DO NOT support that claim which is why I would never leave one not properly disposed.Ditto for tp buried in the woods-not a good idea.However,the WISI is a pretty awesome wipe and you could re use one a few times in a pinch.

You've been clear on how you use them and your recommendations, just wondering what the end product is and thought maybe it was somewhere in the fine print.

There's one study I found that is often quoted about rayon being compostable. I briefly scanned it and it did not appear to be the same compostability standard which ASTM uses. The ASTM standard is a commercial standard, part of it is keeping the product at 140F. It's also in reference to plastics. A residential, home gardener for example may have difficulty keeping their pile to the same standard. At the moment I am not sure how my tumbling composters compare either. I know they get warm, are aerated, and I have been working on keeping a good mix of "greens" and "browns". The ASTM standard is useful but a little bit stringent for real world comparisons. I've seen some mention of other third party certifiers but not run across any other standards.

I am interested to see now if they will compost actually. They wouldn't need to be thrown out. You might not want them in any compost going to a garden if used as part of the #2 process but otherwise they might be suitable for other places. Or you could wash in them in the laundry, even if a top loader tears them up some that would be a good thing in the compost pile.

Now those blue rags I mentioned, I found the product name and they were polypropylene (I guess the blue should have been a hint). That doesn't compost normally. There are some ways that additives are speeding biodegradation however but that's more of a case by case basis. Wet wipes are most often made from polyester and polypropylene.

[Alligator]

OK, I had to google this - yes, they are rayon, and if you don't know much about rayon, it is made from scrap wood with some of the nastiest chemicals in the world. Rayon is not made in the USA due to the manufacturing process being so toxic. (if you're really interested in the subject, read the book "Fake Silk"). is considered a 'cellulose' fiber - like cotton and linen (from plant fiber) but unlike those 2, it is man made. Rayon absorbs more water than cotton or linen and becomes stiffer/stronger when wet than other materials. These are the same as those other 'camp towels' that are often given away free a lot of places. And yes, they are compressed into the coin shape while wet and then dried that way.
'

Did you find a reference specifically for the Wysi wipes? Some of the other dehydrated/compressed toilet paper products definitely say they are made from viscose rayon or simply rayon or viscose. There are different processes to make viscose rayon, some are particularly bad and some aren't. Seems that "open" and "closed loops" are used to reference those. I watched a German manufacturer youtube video on the process and they made claims about their process being environmentally "friendly". I'm not saying I agree or disagree but I would expect that there are tighter environmental controls in Germany than what is produced in China. Plus the whole argument about how the cellulose is obtained. It's not completely cut and dried.

[gpburdelljr]

It might be interesting to bury one of these rehydrated sheets 6 inches deep in your yard, bury some tp nearby, and see what happens to each over time.

[Alligator]

It might be interesting to bury one of these rehydrated sheets 6 inches deep in your yard, bury some tp nearby, and see what happens to each over time.

That's an improved idea. Maybe drop a deuce in both for realism...tempting! With and without...Taking it further, it would be better to replicate it both locally and then across soil types and environmental conditions. I know of a soils study that included wood decomposition. They buried sticks and would over the years, dig some of them up and do measurements. Maybe not so tempting as far as #2.

I used to put both cardboard and newspapers on top of my garden and the newspaper would decompose and nearly all the cardboard would too. Cardboard between the beds would last longer I'd say because it didn't get as wet and would be somewhat elevated in spots, it didn't always fit well between the beds' walls. I have little doubt the TP would be gone. My compost occasionally has something obvious in it when I spread it, often a piece of citrus. Sometimes eggshells. But be the next season, nothing is identifiable. If left clumpy it stays sort of clumpy, that's about it. I have been adding shredded paper all year to up the brown content and that goes over well and the paper is gone. Cereal boxes, egg cartons too. I hadn't really considered fabric before though but I have had just a couple of pieces of fabrics in there or a couple rags left in the garden and I just left them. Those do take longer but I don't know what they were made of. After reading some of this, I am going to start composting some fabrics. My pile in the back never needs any browns but the tumblers seem to be really imbalanced with greens. I had a real soupy one over the winter into spring. All the leaves go in the pile is why.