Well, that’s a wrap! This year’s annual meeting took place on Wednesday, March 19, as allies of smart flushing joined virtually to hear all about the Responsible Flushing Alliance’s innovative work and growth.
RFA began in August 2020 and has since worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the Do Not Flush symbol, spread awareness of the importance of responsible flushing and make a positive influence on flushing habits. Our approach has leveraged culture and creativity to break through the noise and ensure our message sticks.
Thinking Outside the Box
In 2023, the Clog Monster made his Hollywood debut. In this year’s annual meeting, we talked about how we continued making a splash with our messaging in 2024.
We had to find an innovative way to defeat the Clog Monster — so we took an approach focused on cultural relevancy: true crime. Our film-noir-inspired campaign for the first annual Flush Smart Month took Vidcon Anaheim by surprise with our real-life talking toilet, who engaged audience members in helping solve the crimes of flushing.
With this big activation and our other creative efforts throughout the year, we’ve been able to reach more consumers than ever before. And we know what we’ve been doing is working!
Spreading the Word Far & Wide
Every year, our consumer surveys help us gauge people’s flushing habits. We started conducting these surveys in 2021 for just the residents of California, but in 2024, we expanded across the nation.
In 2021, 69% of Californians surveyed said they recognized the Do Not Flush symbol. Over the course of four years, we’ve helped increase that number to 78%. And beyond California, national awareness ranked even higher in our 2024 survey at 81%!
While this is great progress, and we’re especially excited to see our work paying off all over the country, we are still seeing folks report having flushed things they know they shouldn’t. This tells us two things: one, we need to know what people are flushing. And two: we need to keep focusing on changing behavior.
Our sewage collection study, in collaboration with INDA and CASA, was an in-depth look at what’s causing clogs. A few results stick out: 34% of clog-causing material were wipes labeled with the Do Not Flush symbol, which means we need to keep encouraging people to look for the symbol and follow disposal directions to prevent non-flushable items from getting into the pipes. Surprisingly, the study also found that less than 1% of the collected items were wipes labeled as flushable – and these flushable wipes were all in the process of breaking down. What this shows is that flushable wipes are not the primary cause of blockages that damage wastewater infrastructure, which has been incorrectly claimed in recent headlines.
With our collection study results, compelling activations and overall data-led efforts, we made the news about the importance of responsible flushing and looking for the Do Not Flush symbol on wet wipes packaging. We saw over 1,000 placements of a syndicated article that talked about the collection study results. We reached over 6.5 million viewers across the US with #FlushSmart tips through a syndicated TV segment on Lifetime Channel’s “The Lifestyle List” and NBC’s “Daytime” show. And we placed print ads in USA TODAY’s Go Escape Winter magazine, Esquire and Los Angeles Magazine to remind consumers to dispose of baby, make-up and cleaning wipes in the trash, never the toilet.
So how do we keep up the momentum and keep changing behavior?
What’s Next for RFA?
Our survey results have shown that 60% of people with children in their household were more prone to flushing non-flushable items than those without. Sometimes, it seems, parents can be even worse rule-breakers than their kids!
So, it’s back to the basics: potty training. But we’re potty training the grown-ups this time, and we’re teaching them how to flush responsibly. For Flush Smart Month 2025, we’ll be working with social media influencers to educate people through humor and songs on the potty training that a lot of adults seem to need. Often used as a tool for potty training children, music aids learning and helps with retention. Our hope is to lodge cute, catchy tunes into the heads of many parents, ensuring responsible flushing stays top of mind.
Stay tuned for toolkits featuring shareable graphics and information from the Potty Training for Grown-Ups campaign, coming in advance of Flush Smart Month 2025 this July.
As we keep moving forward, we keep thinking outside of the box to ensure our message breaks into the cultural narrative and sticks in the minds of our audiences. This is a huge part of our success as an organization.
Another key to improving flushing habits across the nation is securing input, buy-in and support from wipes manufacturers, wastewater experts and others who wish to advocate for a healthier environment.
Thank you to all who attended this year, and we hope you join us by helping spread the word on how to #FlushSmart!
If you missed the meeting, you can watch it on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fma-fM01aVA