Have you had problems with your drain getting backed up lately? Maybe it wasn’t always this way, but lately your sink has been clogging up numerous times a week and getting progressively worse.
Is it the drain itself? Should you blame the plumber? Is this some sort of weird conspiracy from our plumbing systems?
It may surprise you to find out that the main reason for your drain’s recent issues is none other than the food items you’re putting down the drain.
While the garbage disposal is a helpful tool, not all food is meant to go down it.
Items to Never Put Down the Drain
Some of the items on this list will surprise you, read below for 9 items to NEVER put down your sink!
1. Eggshells
In theory, an eggshell is soft enough that the disposal should crush it into tiny pieces that are so minuscule they fall right down the drain.
However, the shell’s jagged edges will collect different items as they fall down the drain such as hair, gunk, and other residue that’s been gathering in your pipes.
Eggshells also get easily caught into any grease or oil that’s already sitting in your drain and doubling the damage of what was already there.
2. Grease
The term grease tends to confuse people into thinking it’s okay to slide down your sink’s drain since car machinery uses grease to help it run. Because of that, they associate metal piping to be just as tolerable to grease as the metal car machinery that thrives on it.
In fact, just the opposite.
Pouring hot grease down your drain will cause it to collect and build up in the nooks of your drain. Once it solidifies it’s almost impossible to push water through.
Not to mention that the oil grease catches other things to build up even more blockage, thus more problems, for you.
3. Coffee Grounds
Often times, people think that because coffee grounds are so small, they will easily slide down the drain. Coffee grounds do the same thing with water in your sink as they do with the water in your coffee machine — pack together.
Pair that with the grease and oil already in your drain, which it will cling to, and this stop your sink from draining properly.
Experts say coffee grounds are a leading reason for clogged sinks in most American households.
4. Produce Stickers
While no one intentionally tears the sticker off of their produce and throws it down the drain, you’d still be surprised how many make it into your sink.
If you forget to tear the produce sticker off, it will fall off when you go to rinse your produce under running water in the sink.
Then, down the drain it goes and sticks to whatever gatherings it can find along the way. These will never dissolve in water, so once they find their way to a water filtering facility, they’re there for good.
To prevent this, make a mental note of peeling off all produce stickers before you put them away from the grocery store.
5. ‘Flushable’ Items
Simply stating that they are “flushable” certainly doesn’t make it so.
In fact, there are many items such as cat litter, bottom wipes, facial tissues, scrub pads, etc. that claim to be flushable and still run the risk of creating significant damage.
Even if they were to break down and dissolve properly in the water (which they sometimes do, to be fair), there are still toxins and chemicals in some of those products that we DON’T want in our water supply.
If they don’t dissolve properly, which is much more likely, they’ll clot your pipes in impossible-to-reach places that will force you to hire an expert to retrieve.
6. Paper-Based Products
A bit of common sense should explain to most people why it’s never a good idea to flush or dispose of paper towels down your toilet or sink.
Toilet paper serves one main purpose — to absorb water. Therefore, you’re asking for trouble when you send a water-absorbent product down your very thin drain pipes.
Regardless of the small size or amount of toilet paper you’ve used, it’s better to play it safe and throw it in the garbage instead.
7. Flour
In its natural state, flour is meant to solidify when mixed with water.
Therefore, you must ALWAYS dispose of it via trash. Throwing it down your drain can cause significant damage and build up.
It’s also not a good idea to throw pasta, or other expandable food items down the drain for this same reason.
8. Pills of Any Sort
No, your sink won’t become clogged up if you dispose of medication down the drain.
However, the chemicals in the medication will mix into your drinking water and affect the community around you, if not yourself as well.
Treat any unused medication as a hazard and dispose of it in the safest place possible. If medical waste disposals are an option, be sure to optimize them.
9. Bones
Yes, the garbage disposal is a godsend for crushing the living daylights out of anything you throw down into it. No, that doesn’t mean you should abuse it by throwing the remains of your six-piece chicken wing meal down it.
Bones can cause the disposal to get stuck, or even break in some instances, should you overuse it.
Better safe than sorry, throw “them chicken wings” down the trash next time.
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So, there you have it! 9 things to never throw down the drain or toilet.
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