Most people realize the water that leaves their homes and places of business, worship or community is used and nasty. It leaves in a drain pipe and collects at the alley, and funnels into a larger pipeline that is shared by your neighborhood. Each neighborhood in your community also drains into a collective pipeline that takes that wastewater all the way to the treatment facility. 

Real people, with real jobs, really do work in those treatment facilities. These facilities strain it, clean it and connect connect it – with pipes – to water treatment facilities that treat it with chemicals and send it back to your communities, neighborhoods and homes. By the time that water comes out the faucet at your sink when you go to make dinner, it’s been traveling quite a distance.

Sounds like a pretty big deal, doesn’t it? When we talk about being cautious about what you put down your drains, there’s a reason for it. We see first hand what clogs up a home, and know that if drains don’t get stopped up there, they will later on in the pipeline. If your neighborhood has ever had the water turned off while they work on the lines, you know how clogs and breaks affect everyone.

Between toxic chemicals used for cleaning or solvents, flushed prescriptions, and toys – our pipes take on a lot of things that just shouldn’t be going down them. Here’s another list you need to commit to memory and teach your family:

• Baby wipes
• Feminine protection
• Potato peels
• Coffee grounds
• Paper towels
• Cleaning wipes of any kind

All those items keep water from exiting your home easily, and begin building up somewhere in the pipeline. Some treatment plants aren’t equipped with a ‘grinder’ device used to help break down and remove solids, and have to manually remove those items before the water can be treated.

For years municipalities have been fighting to keep the word ‘disposable’ off of tampons and baby wipes, with little luck! But you read Ask The Plumber, so you know better. Those fibrous items never completely break down, instead becoming huge, shreds that knot up in the system that have to be manually removed. If they can’t be, you have breakdowns in services and SOMEONE is inconvenienced greatly because of another person’s lack of consideration – or possibly just ignorance.

Ignorance we can address. Please share this post with your friends, families and neighbors and have them share it on Facebook, too. ‘Disposable’ or not, do NOT flush tampons, baby wipes, cleaning wipes or paper towels down the toilet, for the good of your community. Please leave your comments below.