Flushing Do's and Don'ts

Have you been using your toilet as a trashcan? If so, we hope you will soon reconsider! Our sanitary sewer system was not designed to process the assorted debris created by our daily lives. Like your home plumbing, our sanitary sewer system can overflow or breakdown when enough nondispersible products find their way into our pipes.

So, what’s a nondispersible product? Nondispersible products refer to any item that does not easily break down when mixed with water. Dispersible products, on the other hand, are specifically designed to quickly and easily breakdown when mixed with water. Toilet paper is the only true dispersible product on the market. Despite what product packaging tells you, often times items labeled as “flushable” can clog pipes, screens and pumps throughout the sanitary sewer system.

The City of Spokane has a great video entitled ‘Will it Flush?’ that demonstrates the difference between dispersible products and flushable products. Frequent nondispersible items found in wastewater include facial tissues, ‘flushable” wipes (such as baby wipes or all-purpose cleaning wipes), cotton swabs, feminine hygiene products, and cat litter. When thousands of users throughout the system flush nondispersibles, we risk costly repairs, service interruptions, and threats to our local economy and waterways.

Watch the ‘Will it Flush?’ video below:

The International Water Services Flushability Group (IWSFG) sets Specifications. Learn more about it here.