What to never flush down the toilet – Sincere Sustainability

It won’t come as a surprise to know there are certain things you should never flush down the toilet, but you might actually be blown away by all the things you have been flushing down the toilet all these years and shouldn’t have been. I know I was for sure. Here is a list of everything that shouldn’t go in the bowl and why.

What you cannot flush down the toilet:

Wipes
Paper towels and facial tissues
Cotton Balls/Rounds/Swabs
Feminine products
Hair
Dental floss
Contact lenses
Chewing gum
Diapers
Medications
Harmful substances (including but not limited to antifreeze, motor oil, window washer fluid, household cleaners, bleach, disinfectants, paints, solvents, removers, glue, nail polish remover, perfumes, aftershave, pesticides and garden products)
Cosmetics
Bandages
Cigarette Butts
Food
Fish
Fats,oils, and grease
Cat litter
Condoms

Wipes

Although some wipes market themselves as flushable, they are not. This includes any kind of wipe such as baby wipes, facial wipes, or disinfecting wipes. They will not break down in the water and you risk clogging your pipes or causing issues later down the road of water treatment.

Paper towels and facial tissues

Paper towels and facial tissues were made to be absorbent, not easily dissolvable. Not only can these items swell up to more than twice their original size when wet and therefore clog pipes in your home, they are also difficult to dissolve in water and may cause issues down the line such as at a water filtration site.

Cotton Balls/Rounds/Swabs

Similarly to paper towels and facial tissues, cotton balls and cotton swabs do not easily dissolve in water and can cause problems in your pipes or in your local water filtration center.Certain cotton swabs are made of plastic and therefore cannot be composted. But otherwise, these products can go in the compost bin.

Feminine products

Some feminine products, such as pads, are more obvious to understand why you cannot flush them. The back lining is often made of plastic and it is easy to understand how they can clog pipes. But what about less obvious products like tampons which seem to be plastic free? Turns out you cannot flush these either. Similarly to a lot of the products previously mentioned, their original purpose is to be absorbent and will therefore swell, leading to possible clogged pipes. Tampons are also not easily broken down; if they were it would defeat their purpose. Some recent feminine products are marketing themselves as compostable and although this would be better than throwing them all in the trash, they are still not flushable.

Hair

Be it from removing dead hairs off of your hairbrush, cutting your hair, or shaving (men their beards and women their legs), you are sure to have hair in your bathroom from one source or another. It might surprise you to know that it actually is not recommended to flush hair down the toilet. Hair does not break down easily in water and, from accumulation, can cause clogged pipes. Thankfully, hair is compostable! So now you know where to put your hair. On a side note, although not typically found in the bathroom, pet fur is also not flushable.

Dental floss

Dental floss is made of nylon or teflon and does not break down easily. Furthermore, it can twist around other objects and cause even larger clumps that can potentially clog pipes and be more difficult to process. There are companies that sell compostable floss, but if not marketed as such, should be thrown in the garbage.

Contact lenses

Hundreds of million of people worldwide use contact lenses on a daily basis and dispose of them in the toilet. This contributes to the creation of trillions of microplastics, which is a major environmental concern.

Chewing gum

Gum is non-dissolvable and also sticky, meaning it can stick to your pipe lining and cause the accumulation of other products. It can also adhere to other products and cause a large blockage.

Diapers

Baby diapers are large and absorbable and will almost certainly cause a blockage in a pipe. Always throw diapers in the garbage.

Medications

Although tempting due to convenience, you should never flush any medication in the toilet. Contrary to almost every other product on this list, medications are usually highly dissolvable in water and break into such small particles that water filtration plants struggle to remove all harmful medications from the water. This contributes to water pollution and can be a disaster. Imagine all the people ingesting particles of medication they shouldn’t be? Bring old/expired medication to your local pharmacy so they can be disposed of properly.

Harmful substances

In this category I am including all liquid toxic substances such

Car and garage products (i.e. antifreeze, motor oil, window washer fluid).
Household cleaning products (i.e. cleaners, bleach, disinfectants).
Paints (including any solvent, remover or glue).
Personal care products (i.e. nail polish remover, perfumes, aftershave).
Pesticides and garden products.

For the same reason as medications, toxic substances mix with the water and are difficult to remove, leaving traces of it in our drinking water. These products can be disposed of properly at special drop off sites.

Cosmetics

Old makeup or creams should not be dumped in the toilet because they can contain toxic substances. Treat them like you would the list of toxic substance above and research how to dispose of your cosmetics consciously.

Bandages

Most bandages are made of plastic adhesives which, first, do not dissolve in water, and second, can stick to other products leading to larger clumps of waste.

Cigarette Butts

Cigarettes are not biodegradable and will not break up fully in the water. They also contain hundreds of toxic chemicals that can pollute the water. So even though they would technically be easy to drain out in the cleaning process, it won’t be before they leak some of their cancerous substances into the water that may not be able to be filtered out.

Food

Technically, you shouldn’t flush any food down the toilet. Liquid food waste can go in the regular kitchen sink. Anything too big should be collected with a sink strainer and be thrown in the compost.

Pet Fish

Although it may seem intuitive to flush a dead fish down the toilet bowl, fish actually don’t dissolve very quickly in water and can cause blockages. Consider composting your late friend of giving him a proper burial.

Fats,oils, and grease

Although this is more relevant to the kitchen, it can still happen to flush fats, oils, and grease in the toilet. Although they may be in liquid form at first, once cooled, they harden and can stick to the interior of pipes, preventing other items from passing smoothly and can cause a blockage. After cooking, fats and oils should be left out to solidify and then thrown away. It is not recommended to compost oil and fat because it can attract pests such as rodents and can cause issues in the compost.

Cat litter

It is recommended to not flush cat litter because it is made to absorb fluid and clump. If it clumps in the pipe, it could lead to a major blockage. It is also not recommended to flush cat feces in the toilet because it can contaminate the water with potentially harmful parasites.

Condoms

This one might seem obvious and I won’t even provide an explanation but I just figured I would include it since it is one of the frequent items needing to be filtered at treatment stations.

Summary

A table of all the things that shouldn’t be flushed in the toilet and what you should do with them instead.

Conclusion

This article would have been a lot shorter if it was called what you can flush down the toilet because, technically, there are only three things that should be flushed in the toilet: urine, feces, and toilet paper, also known as the 3 Ps (and even this is not the case in certain countries, such as in Brazil where you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet – instead you throw it in the garbage).

Compost *Make sure the item is compostable before putting it in the compost	Other	Garbage	Garbage
Paper towel	Pet goldfish	Wipes	Floss
Kleenex / facial tissue	Medication	Feminine products	Cigarette butts
Hair	Hazardous substances	Fat,oil, grease	Contact lenses
Cotton rounds/swabs		Condoms	Bandages
Cotton balls		Cosmetics	Cat litter
Food			Chewing gum