Stop Flushing Money Away – What Not To Flush Down Your Toilet

A plumbing disaster can cost you thousands of dollars and nobody wants to spend their money on a bathroom flooding or a pipe bursting because someone flushed the wrong thing down the toilet. Plumbers are called out to thousands of emergency jobs per year to repair plumbing damage due to large blockages and faults, resulting in costly bills to the homeowner. Knowing what not to flush down the loo can keep your pipes clear and working efficiently, resulting in less chance of a blocked drain or worse.

Whilst many of these items may come as common sense to most, some are wrongly considered entirely safe to flush down the toilet and into the wastewater system. They include:

• Pets
• Wet Wipes
• Cooking Oils and Fats
• Cigarette Butts
• Sanitary Items and Dental Floss

Pets

Whilst it may seem like common sense not to attempt to flush your family pet down the toilet, a staggering amount of people still flush pet fish and mice down the toilet when they ‘pass on’. That’s a very nasty site for your plumber when they fish around in your pipes to find a dead/decaying body as the source of the blockage. Just like humans and bigger pets, deceased small pets need to be buried or disposed of responsibly – not flushed away.

Wet Wipes

Despite the packaging on so many of these products claiming them to be flushable, wet wipes and many moist toilet paper wipes are not biodegradable. The thicker, stronger fibres of these products mean they do not break down nearly as fast as normal toilet paper and contribute to blockages in both residential pipes and the wastewater sewage system.

Cooking Oils and Fats

Drains are drains, no matter where they run from. You don’t pour cooking oils and fats down the kitchen sink drain, so don’t tip them down the toilet. These mixtures act as the very best agents for small particles to stick too inside your pipes and create slimy walls along the way, not to mention pollute the water supply as it washes into the sewage system.

Cigarette Butts

They may seem small enough, but ciggie butts are worse flushed than they are butted out and tossed in the bin. Butts just do not break down (have you not seen those stubborn butts still sitting on street verges after being rained on all winter?) and lead to big problems with blockages and pollution.

Sanitary Items and Dental Floss

Pads and tampons are made from cotton but tend to swell when exposed to large amounts of water. A large swollen clump of tight cotton is a recipe for disaster when flushed down a sewerage pipe. Condoms do not break down for years and dental floss gets wrapped around everything inside the pipes and creates a framework for blockages. Popping these items in a plastic bag and disposing of them in the bin is not only environmentally friendly, it’ll ensure your chances of a blocked or damaged pipe is significantly reduced.

Who Can Help Me with A Blocked Drain Or Toilet?

The team at Mainline Plumbing and Cheap Hot Water and Gas have seen it all when it comes to blockages and damages in pipes, both residential and commercial. For more advice on plumbing precautions, or to book a quote for some plumbing maintenance, call 9791 1608 (Bunbury) or 9759 1317 (Dunsborough) today.