There’s been a toilet paper shortage, for weeks, at many stores across the country. 
This shortage is caused, of course, by coronavirus related purchasing – people are stocking up on essentials in order to avoid having to leave their homes. As it stands, the shortages are likely to continue for some time – toilet paper manufacturers aren’t going to ramp up supply. After all, having coronavirus doesn’t make you use more toilet paper, so when pandemic-related purchasing is on the downswing, people are going to have a bunch of unused toilet paper. In other words, though the demand for toilet paper has peaked, people won’t go through their supply for months, so creating more supply is not in the toilet paper industry’s best interests.
Plumbing and toilet paper are tangentially related; why are we getting into this story? Simple. People keep flushing things down their toilets that they shouldn’t. The biggest culprit among these are so-called ‘flushable’ wipes that, as it turns out, aren’t actually flushable at all! Please don’t flush those wipes – if you need to use them, throw them away afterwards. The only thing that should be flushed down your toilet is toilet paper and human waste – nothing more.
There are reports from other cities that these wipes are clogging their sewer lines, causing an already short-staffed workforce to have to work even more overtime hours. We want to avoid that at all costs in Winnipeg, especially since our sewer treatment plant is already in dire need of renovation.
We have been fortunate in Winnipeg. A lot of the grocery stores quickly set per customer limits on toilet paper purchasing, having seen the dire state of affairs in some other regions. That means that if you’re shopping for toilet paper and can’t find any, it’s worth looking at another store; there’s almost certainly going to be a retailer who has some. You might even ask an exhausted-but-helpful store clerk to call another location for you – just be sure to thank them afterwards!
If you’ve flushed things you weren’t supposed to down the toilet, it’s okay. We all make mistakes, and you can be forgiven for thinking that ‘flushable’ means flushable. Honestly, there should be laws against this kind of thing!
We’re still in operation during the pandemic; plumbing is a pretty essential service, after all. We’ll clear out any clogs you might have, and get your plumbing back in working order.
We’ll help you with non-clog related plumbing problems, too. We want you to feel comfortable and safe in your home at all times, especially when you’re staying at home to keep others safe. We’ll continue to offer residential plumbing in Winnipeg during this trying time. We’re taking steps to make sure we maintain proper social distancing during our interactions, and we’re sanitizing almost excessively to make sure everyone stays healthy. We wish you all the best!
