Since today is National Coffee Day, it’s a perfect time to share a very important coffee tip: don’t send your used coffee grounds down your kitchen sink! According to this article from Mother Nature Network, while some people believe that dumping coffee grounds down the drain won’t cause any problems, most plumbers disagree – saying that those coffee grounds (along with grease) cause the most blockages. Here’s a list of other things you should never put down the drains in your kitchen sink, bathroom sinks or toilets.
Our household drains are cunning things; agents of deception, really. They act as magic portals to rinse our messes away, and once we’ve dispatched something down the sink or toilet, we rarely think of it again. Bad us! Because in reality there are many things we pour down the drain that can cause mayhem in household pipes, septic systems or municipal sewer plants – and in turn can be especially vexing for water ecosystems and their inhabitants. Water treatment facilities can remove many contaminants, but a lot of deleterious chemicals and substances still end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans.
So for the sake of healthy plumbing and healthier water habitats, here are some of the more common contenders for things that you shouldn’t send down your pipes.
Eggshells: Even with a garbage disposal, eggshells create granular waste that loves to hook up with other waste to form clogs.
Grease, fats and oils: Any of these slimy threesome can mix with other nasty things and clog household pipes to form “fatbergs” that block sewers. So gross. Grease, fat and oil buildups caused about 47% of the up to 36,000 sewer overflows that happen annually in the United States. Grease includes cooked and/or melted fat from meat, bacon, sausage, poultry, skin from boiled poultry, and even gravy. Fats are meat trimmings, uncooked poultry skin, cheese, ice cream, butter, milk and other dairy, nut butters, shortening and lard. Oils include cooking oil, olive oil, salad dressings, condiments and mayonnaise.
Produce stickers: Believe it or not, the tiny plastic-containing identification stickers on fruits and vegetables are regularly washed down the drain and create problems. They can get stuck in your drain and pipes as well as stuck on wastewater treatment plant pumps and hoses, or get caught in screens and filters. And if they get past all that, they end up in the water.
Paper towels: Although they may be biodegradable, the absorbency inherent in paper towels makes them perfect for clogging up pipes. Instead of flushing them, compost them or switch to cloth kitchen towels.
