Can You Flush Paper Towels Down the Toilet?

No. Paper towels should never go down the toilet. They are built to stay intact when wet, which is the opposite of what toilet paper does, so they hold together in the trap and the drain line instead of breaking apart. Charleston Water System lists paper towels on its do-not-flush list and says to flush only "pee, poo and toilet paper". The same applies to tissues, napkins, wipes, tampons and sanitary pads.

Updated September 30, 2026.

If you’ve run out of toilet paper, you might be tempted to use paper towels as a substitute. However, emergency plumbers strongly advise against this because flushing them can increase the risk of clogs and water overflows. While paper towels are better suited for cleaning mirrors or bathroom sinks, they should be disposed of in the trash, not the toilet.

Discover the differences between paper towels and toilet paper, how they can lead to plumbing blockages and when to call an emergency plumber near you.

Can You Flush Paper Towels?

In our guide to drain cleaning, we explained that your sinks, drains and pipes are vulnerable to debris like hair, soap scum, grease, food particles and foreign objects. All these objects resist water and don’t easily disintegrate, creating the conditions for a blockage.

Although tissues, paper towels and wet wipes may seem suitable alternatives to toilet paper, they also risk causing a plumbing emergency. If you regularly use and flush these items, you may ask questions like, “Why does my toilet keep clogging?” or “What’s causing these toilet blockages?” The answer lies in the materials; these items are not made the same way as TP.

While toilet paper, paper towels, tissues and napkins use paper in their construction, TP is specifically designed to prioritize softness and fast disintegration. It is made of short fibers that break down easily in water, protecting your toilet pipes from clogging. Even wet wipes advertised as flushable should not be flushed down the toilet because they do not break down as quickly as regular TP.

Paper towels, tissues and napkins use more durable fibers that prioritize absorbency. When they come in contact with water or liquids, they expand and stay together.  The same wet strength problem applies to menstrual pads, which add an adhesive strip and a waterproof backing layer. See can you flush pads down the toilet.

After flushing towels down the toilet, it can take a long time for them to break apart. They tend to stick to the side walls of your pipes, especially around bends and curved sections like the P-trap. A small quantity of paper towels can easily cause blockages, requiring you to call emergency plumbing services.

When to Call an Emergency Plumber

If paper towels have accidentally been flushed down your toilet, stop using that toilet right away. Watch for signs of a blockage. Catching these early and calling a 24-hour emergency plumber near you can help you avoid a full-blown plumbing emergency.

• Your toilets drain too slowly. Bunched-up paper towels inside your toilet pipes can constrict their interior diameter and prevent water from flowing correctly. A common symptom in toilets is the speed at which water drains after flushing. If yours is unusually slow, contact an emergency plumber; they can locate and clear the clog before it worsens.

• You frequently need to plunge your toilets. Using a toilet plunger whenever you notice the signs of a clog is a good idea; sometimes, that’s all you need to clear the occasional blockage. But if your toilets repeatedly seem to clog or need plunging, it can indicate a blockage deep in the pipes, further than a plunger can reach.

Call your emergency plumber if you need to unclog your toilets several times a month. They can help you determine if the issue is caused by paper towels or other absorbent tissues stuck in the pipes.

In extreme cases, mold and mildew may grow from the paper towel obstruction. This is a health risk and an emergency that requires an expert plumber’s intervention.

What Charleston Water System Says You Can Flush

The rule from our own utility is three items long. Charleston Water System puts it in five words: "Only flush pee, poo and toilet paper!" Everything else belongs in the trash, including several things most people assume are fine.

This is the published do-not-flush list, in the utility's own wording:

The federal position is the same. EPA asks Americans to "only flush toilet paper, not disinfecting wipes or other non-flushable items", and states plainly that "flushing anything other than toilet paper, including disinfecting wipes, can damage internal plumbing, local sewer systems and septic systems."

What Actually Happens When You Flush a Tampon or a Pad

This is the question we get asked most often after the fact, usually by someone who already did it and is hoping it will be fine. Sometimes it is. Often it is not, and the reason is in the product design.

A tampon is engineered to absorb many times its own weight and to expand while doing it. A sanitary pad is engineered the same way. Neither is designed to come apart in water, because a product that fell apart when wet would be useless. Flushing one puts an object into your drain line that gets larger and stays intact, which is precisely the shape of a blockage.

One tampon will often clear a modern 3 inch drain line and reach the sewer main. The trouble is that it does not have to stop in your pipe to cause you a problem. It can lodge at the first restriction it meets, and in older Charleston housing stock that restriction is frequently a cast iron lateral that has already narrowed with scale, or a belly in a line that has settled in our soft coastal soil.

Charleston Water System lists tampons and sanitary napkins on the do-not-flush list without qualification. We cover this one on its own in can you flush tampons down the toilet. If one has already gone down and the toilet still flushes normally, watch it rather than panic. If the bowl is draining slowly, or a second fixture in the house has started gurgling, stop flushing and read the section below on what to do next.

Why "Flushable" Wipes Are the Biggest Cause of Clogs Here

Charleston Water System is direct about this: "The two biggest causes of sewer clogs are 'flushable' wipes (which are not), and fats, oil and grease (FOG)." The word flushable on the package describes whether the wipe will leave your toilet bowl. It does not describe what happens in the two hundred feet after that.

The mechanism is worth understanding because it explains why the problem compounds. As the utility puts it, "unlike toilet paper, wet wipes remain intact and tangle into massive clogs that jam pumps and block pipes." They do not dissolve and then reassemble. They arrive whole, catch on anything already in the line, and each one that follows makes the catching easier.

Paper towels behave the same way for the same reason. Both are made with wet strength, a property manufacturers add deliberately so the product survives being used while damp. Toilet paper is the only paper product in your bathroom engineered to fail when wet, and that failure is the entire point of it.

Grease Is the Other Half of the Problem, and It Is Not Only Cooking Oil

Grease earns equal billing with wipes on the utility's list, and it does more damage in Charleston than most homeowners expect, because it never leaves as a liquid. Charleston Water System describes the process: "Grease cools as it travels through pipes. Over time, the accumulation of grease blocks pipes, and other fatty substances cause clogs, so dispose of all fats, oils, and grease in the trash, not down the drain."

Running hot water behind it does not solve anything. It moves the problem further down the line, to a colder section of pipe where the grease cools and deposits anyway, and that section is usually the part that is expensive to reach.

Fats arrive from more places than the frying pan: bacon fat, meat trimmings, dairy, salad dressing, butter, the oil poured off a tray. A wipe caught on a grease deposit is how a slow drain becomes a backup.

Who Pays When the Clog Is on Your Side of the Meter

This is the part that decides the size of the bill, and most people only learn it during an emergency. Charleston Water System draws the line clearly: "We own and operate water mains and sewer lines in the public right of way, everything up to and including the water meter. We are not responsible for private plumbing systems or the service line between the water meter and your home."

So the pipe running from the meter to your house is yours. If a wipe or a wad of paper towel stops in that run, clearing it is a homeowner cost, not a utility one, and it is the section most likely to be old. It is also the section a camera inspection is for: it tells you whether you are paying to remove a blockage or to fix the reason blockages keep happening there.

If more than one fixture backs up at the same time, the problem is very likely in that shared line rather than in the toilet, and our guide on telling a fixture clog from a main line clog walks through how to work out which one you have before anyone quotes you.

What to Do Right Now If You Already Flushed It

Five steps, in order. The first two are the ones that prevent a clean-up bill.

• Stop flushing. Every additional flush adds water to a line that is not draining. Overflow damage costs far more than the blockage.
• Take the lid off the tank and close the flapper if the bowl is already rising. That stops the refill immediately, without needing the shutoff.
• Close the toilet shutoff valve at the wall behind the bowl, turning clockwise. If it will not turn, do not force it, and see our guide on a seized shutoff valve.
• Try a flange plunger, not a cup plunger. The flange is the rubber sleeve that folds out to seal the drain opening. A flat cup plunger cannot seal a toilet.
• Do not reach for chemical drain cleaner. It will not dissolve a paper towel or a tampon, and it leaves a caustic liquid sitting in the bowl that whoever works on the toilet next has to deal with.

If plunging does not clear it, or a second fixture is affected, the obstruction is past the toilet and into the drain line. That needs an auger or a camera rather than more force. For the longer version of that, see How Do You Use a Plumber’s Snake?

Common Questions About What You Can Flush

Can you flush paper towels down the toilet?

No. Paper towels are manufactured with wet strength so they hold together when damp, which is the opposite of toilet paper. They stay intact in the trap and the drain line rather than breaking apart. Charleston Water System lists paper towels, rags and dust towels on its do-not-flush list, and EPA asks Americans to flush only toilet paper.

What happens if you accidentally flush a tampon?

Often nothing immediately, because a single tampon can clear a modern drain line. The risk is that tampons are designed to absorb and expand and do not break down, so one can lodge at the first restriction it reaches. In older Charleston homes that is frequently a scaled cast iron lateral or a settled section of line. Watch for slow draining or a second fixture gurgling, and stop flushing if either starts.

Can you flush pads down the toilet?

No. Sanitary napkins are on Charleston Water System's do-not-flush list. They are built to absorb liquid and expand while staying intact, which is the behavior most likely to create a blockage. They belong in the trash.

Are flushable wipes actually flushable?

Not in the sense that matters. Charleston Water System states that the two biggest causes of sewer clogs are flushable wipes, which it notes are not, and fats, oil and grease. The utility says wet wipes remain intact and tangle into massive clogs that jam pumps and block pipes. The label describes leaving the bowl, not surviving the pipe.

What is the difference between toilet paper and paper towels?

Toilet paper uses short fibers chosen to break apart quickly in water. Paper towels, tissues and napkins use longer, more durable fibers and added wet strength so they stay usable while damp. Toilet paper is the only paper product in the bathroom engineered to fail when wet, and that is exactly why it is the only one that should be flushed.

Will a paper towel eventually dissolve in the pipe?

Not reliably, and not on a useful timescale. Wet strength is added specifically to stop that happening. A paper towel can sit in a trap or against an existing deposit indefinitely, and each item flushed afterwards is more likely to catch on it.

Who pays to clear a blocked sewer line in Charleston?

It depends which side of the meter it is on. Charleston Water System states that it owns and operates mains and sewer lines in the public right of way up to and including the water meter, and is not responsible for private plumbing or the service line between the meter and the home. A blockage in that private run is the homeowner's cost.

Is a clogged toilet an emergency?

It becomes one when water is rising toward the rim, when more than one fixture is backing up, or when sewage is entering the house. A single slow toilet that still drains is not an emergency, but repeated clogs in the same toilet point at something in the line rather than something you flushed, and that is worth a camera inspection rather than another plunger.

Contact Blue Collars for Urgent Plumbing Repairs

Blue Collars is a Charleston plumbing company with several years of experience serving our local communities. We offer 24/7 emergency plumbing and HVAC services and we can handle any type of issue, from partially clogged toilets to complete plumbing system assessments and repairs. Worth reading alongside this: Can Hair Clog a Toilet? Learn the Facts.

Call our team today to schedule a service or request an emergency visit.