One room that is often taken for granted in our homes is the bathroom. It provides us with a place to take a nice shower and feel clean. It also provides us with a nice private area to take care of business that can be…well you know.
We all have ideas about what should not be flushed down the toilet, but do we really know?
It’s tempting to flush items down the toilet… you just dump it, flush it, and it’s gone! It may seem like a harmless material to flush down, but you could be setting yourself up for an embarrassing or unpleasant future situation.
Here are 10 items that you should never flush down the toilet:
- Sanitary Wipes – These may seem safe to flush because they serve a similar purpose to toilet paper. Although some are marketed as “flushable”, the regulations are recently being revised due to the rising issues in plumbing from these products. The bottom line is that these do not break down easily and cause blockages.
- Feminine Products – Ladies, we see these signs in all of the public bathrooms and there’s a good reason why! These products are made to absorb moisture and they expand, meaning they will expand in your pipes and cause clogs. Discretely and politely toss these in a trash can!
- Condoms – Like the first 2 items on this list, these are not made to be flushed! These little latex products may seem like they won’t cause much harm, but the truth is, they are not biodegradable. Dispose of these in your trash can!
- Cotton Balls & Q-tips – It seems like these would just break down after getting soggy with all of the water. Well, they don’t and they eventually clump together causing major blockages. Where to dispose of these? The trash!
- Band-Aids – This is another item made of plastic and other chemicals that are not biodegradable. Just toss these in the trash!
- Diapers – Similar to the feminine products and like cotton balls and q-tips, these products are made to absorb moisture and will expand in your pipes. Once again, these should go in the trash.
- Hair – It may seem completely harmless to toss hair in the toilet, since it’s thin and doesn’t seem like big deal. Just like hair clogs up shower drains, it also clogs up toilet plumbing. The hair builds up, forming big tangled clumps that give off unpleasant odors.
- Cigarette Butts – Not only are you wasting water by flushing these down the toilet, but it ends up in our groundwater. Just think of all of the toxic chemicals in a cigarette butt.
- Prescription Medicine – Although medicine/drugs may not cause blockages, just remember you are contaminating our water supply by disposing of these in the toilet. Not only is dangerous for our environment but it’s harmful to us as well.
- Grease, oil, fats – These should never go down any drain, not even the kitchen drain. Once fats, oil, and grease cool down, they will congeal in your pipes leading to a plumbing issue. Dispose of these in a jar or ziplock bag that you’ll later toss in the trash.
There are so many other items that should not end up in your toilet. It’s tempting to use your toilet as a way to get rid of certain items, but just remember the amount of water it takes to flush. Each flush can use up to 3 gallons of water. Not only will you be wasting water, but you could be contaminating our water supply.
The bottom line is, only human waste and toilet paper should go in your toilet.
Should you have a clog or blockage, you can always rely on an experienced plumbing company to remove them. Need A Plumber is experienced and ready to tackle any clog in your house!
