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Attention, all ladies! The following is a public service announcement from your friendly local plumbers at Five Star Home Services: If you care about your home’s plumbing and don’t want to pay an expert to unclog your toilet, we strongly recommend you avoid flushing feminine products down the toilet.
Now in defiance of this advice, some of you may declare: “But wait a minute. Tampons say they’re flushable right on the box!”
To this, we would respond by saying: “Do not be deceived!”
Tampons, maxi pads, wipes, and other “flush-friendly” feminine hygiene products can destroy your plumbing system or septic tank.
And we can prove it!
So please, please, think twice about ever flushing them again.
Allow us to break this topic down more in the following:
Why Female Hygiene Products Can Harm Your Plumbing Network
Have you ever spotted a sign in the women’s restroom cautioning against flushing feminine hygiene items? Those petite bins beside your toilet or attached to your wall aren’t merely ornamental —they serve an essential purpose! They are there to facilitate the correct disposal of female hygiene products that should never be flushed. Here’s the reason why:
Typically, tampons expand up to 10 times their original size once they soak up fluid. This makes them an ideal candidate for clogging sewer lines, particularly in older systems where tree roots have begun infiltrating the pipes.
Tampons never deteriorate. This implies, unlike toilet paper, if a tampon gets trapped on its downward journey in the drain system, it won’t disintegrate. Indeed, the tampon will persist in the pipe and enable other waste to accumulate around it until you need to summon a plumber to dislodge the blockage.
Even if your flushed feminine hygiene products successfully navigate your plumbing network, they are not safe. They could trigger a blockage further down the line, causing plumbing issues for your neighbors. That’s an infallible method to sour neighborly relations!
When tampons reach the sewage treatment facility, which many do, the pumping station employs chemical or physical filter systems to break them down alongside other non-degradable items that land in the sewer. This is laborious and costly, contributing approximately $46 billion to America’s public wastewater treatment process annually. Once filtered out, non-degradable items are redirected to the landfill—where they would have gone initially, had you merely discarded them, thereby bypassing all the additional cost and risk to your plumbing network!
Tampons can also harm septic systems. As they never decompose, they occupy space in the tank, elevating liquid levels and enabling solids to obstruct distribution tubes. Eventually, water might overflow into your residence or accumulate around the tank, signaling time to call the plumber.
Other Items Not to Be Flushed
We recommend establishing a household rule only to flush human excreta and toilet paper. That’s it. No allowances, even if “flushable” is prominently displayed on the box. After all, according to some manufacturers, “flushable” merely indicates the product is tiny enough to pass down the toilet drain upon flushing. However, with this reasoning, anything tinier than a golf ball is “flushable.”
Here are other routinely flushed items that should never be disposed of in the toilet:
- Any paper product other than toilet paper, such as tissues, napkins, and paper towels
- All types of wipes, including those labeled “flushable”
- Sanitary pads
- Cotton balls and swabs
- Dental floss
- Sticking plasters
- Condoms
- Medicine or drugs
- Cigarette ends
- Diapers
- Cat litter and pet feces
- Fat, oil, and grease
- Drain cleaning chemical
Did You Unintentionally Flush a Tampon Down the Toilet?
Don’t fret! Mistakes happen. We’re all human!
In case you’ve inadvertently flushed any of these, don’t stress! Keep an eye on your plumbing and watch for signs of a blockage, like slow drains, lethargic flushing, or gurgling pipes. If you notice these issues, it’s time to call a plumber from Five Star Home Services.
Five Star Home Services is the perfect plumbing enterprise for the task. We clear drains, unclog toilets, repair septic systems, and much more. Call us today or request an estimate online.
We proudly serve Greater Columbus, Greater Dayton, Greater Cincinnati and surrounding areas!
We guarantee customer satisfaction and stand behind all of our work! Call us today!