What To Never Flush Down Your Toilet

Sure, all parts of any house are important, but can you think of any house that holds more importance than the toilet?

The convenience that the indoor flush toilet has provided people is simply unquantifiable (and I prefer not to go into too much detail here!) Suffice to say, for us it is quite unimaginable having to go to an outhouse just to do our business.

However, with greater power comes greater responsibility. We have the power to flush – but do we flush responsibly…? With the things some of us flush down the toilet, it seems like we don’t really care much about it. The only time we actually pay any real attention is when it finally backs up, mainly because of the things we flush down the toilet.

You see, there are several factors that work together for the things we flush down the toilet to make it all the way to the city sewer. Our toilet must be well-engineered, drains should be installed properly in keeping with building codes, and lines should be defect-free and properly graded. However, all these don’t matter when we flush all sorts of things down the toilet. Sooner or later, clogged toilets happen, and cause much bigger problems.

With the exception of toilet paper, which is actually designed to be flushable, just about everything else should never be flushed down the toilet. Among the things we flush down the toilet are:

1. Condoms

Take a hint from the fact that people also call them “rubbers”. It doesn’t take much to know what rubber can do to your pipes.

2. Bathroom Wipes

While a more sanitary option for many people, bathroom wipes are not really designed to break down in the water like regular tissue paper, contrary to what ads and labels about them say. They are responsible for many clogged toilets everywhere.

3. Paper Towels

Like item no. 2, paper towels do not break down in water.

4. Disposable Diapers

Know that diapers are made from a plastic material that expands when wet. Think of how much bigger it can get when it comes into contact with water in your toilet, and the kind of obstruction it can become in the pipes.

5. Food Fats

Many people have this habit of disposing of cooking fats in the toilet, without realizing that the liquid stuff they’re pouring will eventually cool down and congeal and become wax that clogs our pipes.

6. Cigarette Butts

Getting rid of one cigarette butt by flushing it down a toilet seems like an awful waste of water, but many people do it, especially those who love to smoke while doing their business in the toilet. What they fail to realize is that cigarette butts are loaded with toxic substances that could make its way into the water supply.

7. Cotton Buds, Tampons and Sanitary Napkins

They don’t break down and tend to accumulate and cause blocked drains and clogged toilets within months.

8. Cat Litter

Pouring cat litter into the toilet may make sense, but what you’re pouring down the toilet is not all cat waste. You’re also pouring down the toilet the clay and sand—which should never be in any toilet in the first place—that make up the cat litter. Also, various toxins and parasites abound in cat waste, and you wouldn’t want any of that anywhere near your water system.

9. Foodstuff

Maybe a tiny piece of bread is fine, but bones and even apple cores can cause clogged toilets.

10. Band-Aids

They are made of non-biodegradable plastic, which should be enough reason for you to stop flushing them down your toilet.

11. Facial Tissue

They are thicker than regular toilet paper and that makes them likely to cause blocked drains.

12. Dental Floss

Small as it is, dental floss is non-biodegradable. To make things even more fun, it wraps itself around small blockages to make even bigger ones.

There’s a world of things that plumbers and sewage workers have fished out of our sewers, but the 12 items mentioned above are among the most common things we flush down the toilet. Now if you’re guilty of stuffing any of them down your toilet, it’s never too late to stop if you want a perfectly working toilet for a long time.