DRAINAGE BLOG

To many, a guide to what you shouldn’t be flushing down the toilet will seem like a waste of time. However, you would be surprised by the huge numbers of people who are still flushing some questionable objects down the loo. The battle with clogged pipes is an ongoing one that local councils are constantly trying to sort out. Sewage systems are purely designed to flush bodily waste and toilet paper, nothing else. However many people resort to using their loo’s like a bin. Not only does this cause issues for the sewage systems but it also causes blockages and cracks in your pipes too. Let’s dive right in and find out what’s responsible.

We’ll start with the main offender: Paper towels

While paper towels are part of nearly every public toilet setting, they are definitely not designed to be flushed. While toilet paper is designed to breakdown when wet, kitchen roll and paper towels are a lot more durable which means they linger and cause blockages.

Cat Litter

Your feline friends can sometimes produce faeces that contains a toxic parasite that is dangerous to both animals and humans. It can then work its way back into our water supply as our sewage treatment plans are not designed to deal with it. As well as the threat of parasites, the cat litter itself is often made of substances which can build up over time and block your toilet.

Cooking oil, fats and grease

Just because it’s liquid and it appears to be taken away with the rest of the toilet water,  does not mean that it’s toilet friendly. Fats and oils solidify very quickly and can attach to the plumbing system. After they have cooled down completely, dispose of them in the bin!

Feminine and Baby Products.

Anything from wet wipes and nappies to tampons, or sanitary towels are a huge issue for our drainage systems. Nappies are designed to absorb any fluids, so could you image the size of a nappy once it’s been submerged in the water in your toilet? The same goes for tampons and sanitary towels, they will grow in size and they also are not build to break down like toilet paper is. Wet wipes and baby wipes are too durable to breakdown and also cause issues. All of the above must go into a bin.

Goldfish

It may be the norm to say goodbye to your goldfish and flush them away, but this sort of quick fix burial is also a blockage hazard for our drainage systems. This goes for any other small pets too which have also been reported to be clogging drains.

Cigarettes

As we know, cigarettes contain toxins that can introduce hazardous chemicals into our water systems. As well as this, the cigarette butts are the topmost toxic plastic polluters, a whopping 4.5 billion cigarette butts are discarded each year.

 

Unblocktober is the world’s first month-long national campaign and awareness month to improve the health of our drains, sewers, watercourses and seas – driven completely by the British public. During Unblocktober, people will be raising awareness for all of the flushing no-no’s that many people wouldn’t have thought twice about.

Here are some figures from the Unblocktober website just to give you an idea of the scale of some of the drainage issues that are affecting the oceans:

• 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year
• 48% of the British public have flushed wet wipes
• An estimated 180 million cotton buds are flushed down our toilets each year
• 48% of the nation pour fats, oils, and grease down their drains which then go on to accumulate in the sewers which then create humongous ‘fat bergs’ – yes that’s right, an ice berg sized lump made of fat. It’s just as gross as it sounds.

We hope you’ve taken something from this, and you’re not too squeemish! Will you be doing your bit this October to save the sewers and seas?