It’s a delicate subject, but this is the truth: Only human waste and toilet paper should be flushed down your toilet. However, our wastewater treatment professionals find a wide variety of items in our sewers and collection facilities, including cell phones, toys, and, unfortunately, a lot of wipes and grease.
The following is a short list of materials that should never be disposed of in kitchen and bathroom sinks, or down your toilet.
Personal Care, Cleaning and Miscellaneous Items:
Unlike toilet paper, which breaks down quickly in water, personal, baby and cleaning/disinfecting wipes remain intact and tangle into massive clogs that jam pumps and block pipes. Even those labeled “flushable” should not be flushed.
Here’s a list of a few other items that cannot be recycled and should always be disposed of in a trash receptacle:
- Diapers and baby wipes, even those labeled “flushable”
- Tampons and sanitary pads, personal care wipes
- Cleaning/disinfecting wipes and disposable toilet brushes
- Paper towels
- “Disposable” contact lenses
- Cigarette butts
- Dental floss and toothpicks
- Cat litter or animal waste
- Toys, or anything made of plastic, including plastic coffee stirrers
Do Not Flush Cloth Rags Down the Toilet
This is a Problem for the Kennebunk Sewer System Cost Rate Payers needless $$$$
Please do not flush cleaning rags, face cloths, and other clothing material down the sewer. KSD has an ongoing problem with someone flushing BLUE WASH CLOTHS in the Brown Street area. This is costing the District thousands of dollars when crews are called in to remove these from clogged impellers. Besides costing the Rate Payers a lot of unneeded costs, it also risks causing a backup in the sewer system that can damage properties.
Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG)
Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) come from meats, butters and margarine, lard, food scraps, sauces, salad dressings, dairy products and cooking oil. When FOG goes down the drain, it hardens and causes sewer pipes to clog. This can lead to a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) where raw sewage actually backs up into your home, lawn, neighborhood and streets.
Please do not pour oil and grease down drains or toilets. Grease is the number one cause of sewer blockages in homes. It cools as it travels through pipes and, over time, the accumulation of FOG can block pipes, contribute to clogs and, eventually, cause raw sewage to surcharge out of nearby manholes.
The solution: allow fat, oils and grease to harden in a can or carton and then dispose of it in your garbage.
Pharmaceuticals:
Did you know that 70 percent of us take at least one prescription medication, with one in five Americans taking as many as five different medicines on a consistent basis? Nearly 40 percent of those prescriptions end up going unused. That amounts to 200 million pounds of stockpiled, unused and expired pills, syrups and liquids.
In the past, there was no consistent and convenient disposal method, so many of these medicines were flushed down the drain.
At this time, the Kennebunk Police Station has a Medication Return Box located at the Police Department located at 4 Summer Street.
Never flush prescription or over the counter (OTC) medicines down a toilet or sink. Proper disposal of these substances means you are doing your part to protect our water resources. Please follow this link to the Town of Kennebunk’s Website for more information on this program by clicking here: Kennebunk MedReturn.