Think of your toilet as a warm, comfortable place to be – your personal sanctuary, if you will. You can read while you do your business, check your Facebook status or play a game on your phone, or do the crossword. At the end of the session, stand up and flush to see everything disappear and sparkling clean water refill the bowl.
But – and it’s a big but! – would you believe that some people use the toilet to flush away all sorts of things that should actually be thrown away or recycled? It simply cannot be overstated that your toilet is not a rubbish bin!
If you’re wondering what is and isn’t safe to flush, here’s a reminder of 12 things provided by The Drain Guys that should never be flushed down the loo.
1. Cotton balls and swabs
Even though they’re just cotton, these little devils are not crazy about being flushed down the loo. Although you might think they’d just go all soggy and mushy and quickly dissolve in the water, they don’t. What they do is bunch together in the bends of the toilet pipe and cause massive blockages.
2. Prescription Medication
When some of the pills and medication you’ve been taking exceed their expiry date, you need to get rid of them. Well, whatever you do don’t flush them down the toilet! Although you may think you’re doing the safe thing it’s actually very dangerous. Pharmaceutical drugs destroy bacteria vital to our health and also end up contaminating our groundwater supplies. If you have pills or other medication you need to dispose of, contact your local pharmacy who should be happy to take them.
3. Bathroom wipes
Although bathroom wipes are becoming an increasingly useful and popular bathroom accessory and are marketed to be safely flushed down the toilet, this is not the case. Wipes clog up the system and cause backups in sewer systems all over the world. The guidelines on flushing wipes has recently changed and a do-not-flush symbol can now be seen on most packaging. So don’t flush them. Oh, and the same thing goes for baby wipes and cleaning wipes. A city in Minnesota USA is currently suing several makers of wipes as they cause innumerable problems in their sewer systems. They don’t degrade after being flushed and are costing the city millions of dollars in damages.
4. Condoms
You probably think it’s safe to flush condoms down the toilet bowl but it’s not. These latex prophylactics fill with air and float around in septic and sewage tanks, causing lots of problems. Better to put them in the bin.
5. Paper towels – Be very careful about flushing paper towels, as they’re not designed to break down in water like toilet paper does. On the contrary, they’re supposed to absorb water! Flushing them can cause big backup problems.
6. Cigarette butts
You may have noticed that cigarette butts don’t actually flush, they just float around looking messy. Beware, because they’re full of incredibly toxic chemicals that shouldn’t get into the water supply.
7. Band-aids and medical plasters
Because these are made from non-biodegradable plastic all they do is clog up the sewage system.
8. Dental floss
Dental floss too is not biodegradable, and when flushed it wraps around other objects in the pipeline, making small blockages into massive back-ups.
9. Fats and oils
Regardless of whether they’re hot or cold, when fats and oils hit cold water they congeal and become pipe-clogging wax. Much better to let fat solidify, then throw it out with the garbage. Pour oil into a sealed bottle, then throw the whole container into the household rubbish.
10. Cat litter
It’s not the cat’s excretions that are a problem here; it’s the cat litter. You see, it’s made from clay and sand, two things that should never be flushed down a toilet – you may as well pour concrete down the loo! What’s more, cat waste contains parasites and toxins that really shouldn’t be added to our water system.
11. Disposable nappies
Nappies are made from highly toxic plastic that’s designed to expand when it comes into contact with water. Can you see the problem yet? We doubt whether you could get one to actually flush away but if you did manage it, it would instantly be trapped in the U-bend and cause a huge blockage.
12. Hair
Just because hair is part of our bodies, don’t think it can be safely flushed away. You’ve probably noticed that your hair clogs up your shower and sink. Well it does the same to your toilet plumbing. It forms into giant balls which then create big back-ups in pipes and sewers. In fact, hair clogs up more drains than just about anything else on the list. When cleaning your shower, basin, and hair brushes, just throw the hair you pull out into the dustbin.
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