When you flush the toilet, everything that goes down makes its way to the City’s sanitary sewer system. You may be surprised to find out that many items that you thought were flushable can actually cause expensive damage to both the City collection system and to your home's pipes.
Save yourself and the City from a pain in the drain: Only human waste, toilet paper and water should go in the toilet.
Other products don’t dissolve. They clog pipes and cause expensive and time-consuming repairs for homeowners. These products also clog public sanitary sewer pipes and pump station equipment and can lead to sewer backups. Those items include:
- baby wipes
- dental floss
- disinfecting wipes
- disposable diapers
- mop refills
- paper towels
- prescription and over-the-counter medicines
- sanitary napkins
- tampons and tampon applicators
- towelettes
What about “flushable” wipes? Nope. Wipes marked as flushable don’t break down nearly as easily as toilet paper. They can still cause clogs and should not be flushed down the toilet. Even facial tissue doesn’t break down in the same way as good ol’ toilet paper as this video from the Water Environment Federation illustrates perfectly:
In addition, you should also avoid putting grease or oil of any kind in your toilet or drain. Fats, oil and grease may seem harmless when they go down the drain, but they can cause backups by sticking to the inside of sewer pipes and combining with material that doesn’t dissolve. And that's... pretty gross. And a little bit scary.