Think before you flush

There are many materials at home that shouldn’t be tipped down the sewer.

This is because sewage treatment plants are not designed to treat these materials. Let’s go on a tour of the house and we’ll see what you shouldn't put down the sink.

Kitchen

Food scraps, tea leaves and coffee grounds should be saved for the compost bin. Never put them down the sink, where they can block up the S-bend or get into the sewers and cause problems at the sewage treatment plants.

Does your family pour any of the cleaners they use down the drain? Things like pot cleaners, kitchen cleaners and window cleaners are ok, but you should always wash it down with extra water.

There are some things you should never put down the drain, like floor care products, furniture polish, insect sprays, oil, fat and oven cleaners.

Yes! Oil and fat shouldn’t go down the drain. Look at what oil and fat can do when they catch and build up on the tree roots which have gone into a sewer

Eventually, the sewer will become blocked and then there’s problems!

Bathroom

Sometimes people put things like old tablets and cotton wool down their toilet and bathroom sink. 

You should never put things like that down the toilet or bathroom sink because they can cause problems at our sewage treatment plants and block up the pipes.

Garage

There are a lot of dangerous things found in the garage. Antifreeze for the car’s radiator, brake fluid, acid for the battery, petrol and some sump oil. This sort of stuff is dangerous to you and dangerous to the environment. None of these things should ever be poured down the drain. They should be saved for collection.

Things like water based glue and water based paints are things you can safely put down the sink. Make sure you don’t get them mixed up with the other paints. They are oil based, so they shouldn’t go down the drain. 

Neither should any other liquids used in painting and cleaning, such as turpentine. 

Most of them are harmful to us, so they will also hurt all the good bugs at the sewage treatment plant.

Just because we put pool chemicals in the pool, doesn’t mean that we can put the leftovers down the drain. 

The same applies to sprays. Sometimes we have to spray our plants with poison to kill pests, but we should never put any sort of poison down the drain. Think of those friendly sewage bugs!

We should all be careful not to put anything down the drain, other than water.