People Who Give a Damn: Jim Kaslik of The UnWipe on Wet Wipes, Public Restrooms, and Solving the Tiny Problems That Add Up

You know that moment when you’re in a public restroom, staring down the world’s saddest toilet paper, wondering why modern society has given us self-driving cars but not a better way to feel clean away from home?

That’s the very human problem behind The UnWipe, a portable alternative to wet wipes and bidets that uses regular toilet paper, a little clean water, and texture to help people clean up without synthetic wipes, mystery fragrance, or plumbing drama.

Because here’s the thing: “flushable” wipes may disappear from the bowl, but they do not magically disappear from the planet. Or the pipes. Or the sewer system.

Jim Kaslik, The UnWipe’s founder, didn’t start with a grand plan to reinvent the bathroom routine. He started with a dried-out pack of wipes, an article about how wipes can be harmful, and the kind of problem-solving brain that sees an everyday irritation and thinks, Wait. There has to be a better way.

Here’s how Jim turned one very awkward little problem into a more durable, less wasteful solution.

The Cabinet Clean-Out That Started It All

Field Trip: What inspired you to build The UnWipe?

Jim: I was cleaning out a cabinet and found a dried-out pack of wet wipes. I don’t know when or how they got there. A week later, a friend shared an article about how harmful wet wipes are to sewers and the environment.

That got my problem-solving brain going. I knew from the start that I wanted a portable solution — some people use bidets, but they’re affixed to the home toilet. And I knew that to replace billions of wipes each year, we’d need to combine direct skin contact with the safe flushability of toilet paper.

The R&D from there was pretty typical. I looked for a method that would make the paper stronger than just wet paper. What we landed on is the really thick texture The UnWipe offers — because texture cleans better. That’s something wipes actually can’t match, because of how they’re made and packaged.

Why Wet Wipes? Why Now?

Field Trip: Wet wipes are one of those products people use without thinking too much about where they go afterward. What made this feel worth solving?

Jim: For me, it was the combination of scale and simplicity. People use wet wipes because they solve a real problem. They help people feel clean. So the question wasn’t, “How do we convince people they don’t need that?” It was, “How do we give people that same feeling without the synthetic wipe?”

A lot of the damage happens after the wipe leaves your hand. That’s the part most people don’t see — the sewers, the landfills, the clogs. But the need itself is real. People want to feel clean, especially away from home.

Texture, Not Trickery

Field Trip: We love that the answer wasn’t some complicated gadget. It was texture. Why does that matter?

Jim: Texture is the whole thing. Wet toilet paper by itself can fall apart, and wipes are limited by how they’re made and packaged. We needed something that could make toilet paper stronger and more effective without adding another disposable product into the mix.

The thick texture is what gives it cleaning power. It’s simple, but it took a lot of testing to get there.

Public Restrooms, Camping Bathrooms, and the Case for Portable Solutions

Bidets can be great at home — less wiping, less trash, happy little tushy spa moment — but they still use water and aren’t exactly useful in a gas station bathroom, at a campground, or on a road trip when the restroom situation is… character-building.

That’s where portability becomes the whole point.

Field Trip: Why was it important that The UnWipe worked away from home?

Jim: A lot of people have anxiety about using restrooms away from home. Some of it is social — the discomfort of a private need in a public space. Some of it is practical: most public restrooms offer nothing beyond the cheapest toilet paper, so if you care about hygiene, you’re just out of luck.

One customer put it perfectly: “I want to come out of a public restroom feeling as if I’d never had to be in there.” That’s what we’re going for. Something simple and portable that turns an uncomfortable moment into a non-issue.

Orders That Still Matter

Field Trip: What’s been your proudest moment since launching The UnWipe?

Jim: Honestly, every new customer order still feels meaningful — someone is trusting that our product can improve a pretty personal part of their day.

Beyond that, knowing we’ve collectively helped keep tens of millions of synthetic wipes out of sewers and landfills is the thing that really sticks with me.

And the week The UnWipe went viral from a CNN Underscored review — I won’t forget that one anytime soon.

The Business of Not Selling You Refills Forever

A lot of companies talk about sustainability while quietly building business models around “please buy this refill forever.”

The UnWipe went the other direction.

Field Trip: How do you balance running a mission-driven company with running, well, a company?

Jim: I’ve been lucky that these two goals rarely pull against each other. The decision to use no plastic, for example, fits our sustainability mission, keeps costs reasonable, and gives customers something so durable that it will last indefinitely. Nobody has to compromise.

We also made a deliberate choice to design it in a way that doesn’t require repeat purchases of consumables. That means customers aren’t generating extra shipping and packaging because of us — which feels right.

A Fellow Problem-Solver Worth Watching

Field Trip: What’s a non-UnWipe product or project you’re excited about right now?

Jim: Staying in the same general territory: I’m genuinely fascinated by Poo-Pourri. Part of it is personal — I was born without a sense of smell, so the problem they’re solving doesn’t hit me directly. But I’ve heard from other people, and clearly it matters enormously to them.

What caught my attention was learning that they didn’t just build a better air freshener — they rethought the problem entirely and came at it from a different angle. Simple, effective, and kind of elegant once you understand it.

That kind of thinking resonates with me and aligns with our mission. Identify the irritating thing. Make it go away. We could all use a bit less irritation right now.

Giving a Damn, Defined

Field Trip: Complete the sentence: “Giving a damn means…”

Jim: …caring about the life experiences of people you’ve never met, and putting real effort into making even a small part of their day tangibly better.

Field Trip: And there it is. Not every conservation-minded idea starts with a sweeping wilderness vision or a dramatic mountaintop moment. Sometimes it starts in a cabinet with a dried-out pack of wipes and the realization that one tiny convenience has a much bigger environmental cost than most of us realize.

The UnWipe is not trying to make bathrooms glamorous. Thank goodness. That would be a lot to ask.

It’s trying to make them better: cleaner, less wasteful, less awkward, and easier to deal with when you’re out living your actual life.

Learn more about Jim and The UnWipe at www.theunwipe.com.

People Who Give a Damn is a recurring Field Trip series highlighting folks who make a difference for the outdoors and the earth. Know someone we should meet? Drop us a line.