August 23, 2021
By flushing unwanted waste in a toilet or basin, you can cause not only pipe leakage and flooding of the household. What you should NOT flush down your toilet?
Flushing anything besides human waste can not only block your plumbing but also flood your house. Such acts lead to higher water bills, reproduction and breeding of rats, but most importantly, to environmental pollution. Here is a list of items you should not flush down your toilet.
In 2014, European Federation of National Associations of Water and Waste Water Services published a report called “Toilets are not bins”. In this report, they pointed out annual damages caused by flushed wet wipes.
It was found that plumbers from 27 European countries had to deal with damages of over €1 billion caused by flushed wet wipes. For people tend to flush them down the toilet, they often block the sewer which bursts and floods the streets.
Along with other water-insoluble personal care products, wet wipes often end up in seas and rivers, causing damage to the environment.
This applies not only to wet wipes but also to pads, tampons, nappies, condoms and other sanitary products.
Many people still think that flushing down food is nothing unusual and the toilet can be used as a food disposal. It is just the opposite.
Food can not only block the sewers but also supports reproduction and breeding of rats nearby households. If you flush your food on a regular basis, a starved rat could get to your toilet through the sewer connection.
Settlement of food residues in the sewer connection may block the pipeline. Settled residues then start to rot and as a result, they transform into smelly, explosive gas which can penetrate your household.
Kitchen waste is not wastewater. So next time, please pack up your leftovers and throw them into your bin.
Cooking oil and fats have also nothing to do in the sewers. Flushed oils or fats can harden in the plumbing and plug the sewers. The results would be clear.
A Toilet is also not an instrument for medication disposal. If you do not use your medication, do not put them in the bin either, but rather take them to the pharmacy or hospital. Leave the disposal to the professionals.
Solvents, dyes, glues, motor oils, petrol or other chemicals do not belong in sewers or bins neither. They can trigger an unwished chemical reaction and produce hazardous gases which can further damage the sewer line and disturb the biochemical water treatment process itself.
Municipal wastewater treatment plants are based on mechanical-biological processes, i.e. they use various microorganisms to remove pollutants from wastewater.
These microorganisms are highly sensitive to the abovementioned chemicals. In contact with chemicals, microorganisms lose their cleaning ability and gradually die. If the wastewater treatment plants undergo such deterioration, poorly treated wastewater and chemicals are released directly to the environment.
If you care about the protection of our planet and all of its living creatures, please do not flush your medication or chemicals down the toilet.
Even this could be considered an elementary knowledge, but it must be often reminded of. Items made of plastic and wood, cigarette butts, clothes, tins or other metals make no exception and also end up in the sewers. It is obvious that such materials could block the pipeline and cause serious accidents.
Frequent cleaning of the sewers and elimination of the consequences often results in increased water bills. Even if you do not care for your environment, at least care for your money.
Your pet’s faeces should not be flushed in the toilet too, as they could reduce the flow rate in the pipeline and damage vacuum valves.
You should use normal waste bin for animal waste disposal or, if you have a garden, they can be composted as well.
