From an article in the StarTribune:
Garbage disposals seem to have encouraged people to put all sorts of things, including hot oil, down the sink. Tough and supposedly "disposable" cleaning products like Swiffer dusting sheets, fiber rags and even stronger paper towels can also create problems.Not mentioned in the article, but I believe also verboten for flushing are Kleenex-type facial tissues.
"Just because it's disposable doesn't mean it's flushable," said Robert Hintgen, Richfield's superintendent of utilities. "And paper towels are not the same thing as toilet paper."
Among the objects that have been removed from sewers in Richfield, Edina and Hopkins are silverware (especially spoons), car keys, cellphones, necklaces, rings, scrap lumber, coins, underwear and a fully inflated basketball. Also found, probably courtesy of a curious toddler hovering over the toilet bowl and flushing: G.I. Joe action figures, Smurfs, troll dolls, grandma's dentures and dad's or mom's watch.
Don't even get sewer folks started on dental floss. It gets tangled in the pumps that propel wastewater through lift stations and snags on the rough insides of old pipes, catching floating debris. And it never, ever decays. "Dental floss causes havoc," said Hintgen. When a lift station pump slows, the culprit often is a mass of tangled floss wrapped in the machinery.
See the next post re pulsating, living creatures.
What people put directly into sewers is problematic too. I used to work for a company that contracted for our local sewer district, and we found that when people would sweep all of their leaves, for example, into the sewer, they back up, which causes backups, costing lots of money. We also found bowling balls, other types of balls, TVs, used tires, computers, used motor oil, street signs, furniture. Once we found a sawed off shotgun wrapped in a woman's dress. We also found a little apartment; someone's possessions lined up on a little shelf-clearly someone was living there. Many cities have combined sewer and stormwater lines. People just throw away anything they don't want anymore down the storm sewer and it causes huge problems.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets by Lars Eighner? He provides some wonderful commentary in one of the chapters "On Dumpster Diving." This post just sort of reminded me of it.
ReplyDeleteI've not read that, but there's an excellent segment of "This American Life" on dumpster diving ("The Tao of the Dumpster") -
Deletehttp://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/62/something-for-nothing
"Things that should not be flushed" is a painful topic for friends of mine who have rented houses to graduate students for decades. Personal hygiene wipes are touted as flush-able. My friends can fix anything but it tried these most patient of people when the main sewer line was horribly backed up with handfuls of these. A roto-rooter company could not snag or force them out. The line had to be dug up and cut, to the tune of $3000.
ReplyDeleteAn exhausting, expensive week of repairs. And a month later, they got a call saying the toilet was backed up again...
The chemical toilets on boats often have a sign "Don't put anything down this unless you've eaten it first, or toilet paper". Sesms fair.
DeleteThe mention of dental floss is a reminder of the ugly experience my wife & had in our new (to us) house. Six months after moving in, we had a terrible problem in the plumbing of the upstairs bathroom. My efforts at snaking the pipes yielded nothing, so I had to call a drain cleaning company, who eventually snaked out a tennis ball-sized clump of used dental floss, knotted together and blackened. It had to have been years of flossing and flushing to create this ugly mass.
ReplyDeleteThe toilet is not a trash can.
This is very timely for me. I've always thrown my dental floss away. My wife, however, tends to flush hers. Under the guilt of an upcoming dental appointment, I recently resumed flossing about 2 weeks ago and decided to start flushing the string, assuming it degrades. I'll admit to being wrong and go back to throwing it away.
ReplyDeleteIt's waxed!!! It has the same degradability as plastic. So what would you expect!
DeleteDaBris
I wouldn't expect wax and plastic to have the same biodegradability at all. And not all dental floss is waxed.
DeleteA quick Google search reveals that waxes (even petroleum-based ones) tend to be rapidly biodegradable. Still, I'm not suggesting wax is a great substance to be flushed down the drain, if for no reason other than the fact that it tends to float on water.
Hmm what makes you think Kleenex are worse than toilet paper? I flush Kleenex all the time, and have never had a problem.
ReplyDeleteIf you Google "flush" and "Kleenex", you will get lots of hits discussing this, without any hard science. But most of them echo this set of recommendations -
Deletehttp://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?hid=1471