Good drainage is vital to any home or work place building and it needs to be treated properly. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions on the subject, leading to poor treatment, followed by poor results in your plumbing and sanitary pipework. Today we’re going to set the record straight, and flush away these drainage myths for the health and safety of plumbing systems everywhere.
Food scraps in the garbage disposal
This is a tricky one, because it should be the garbage disposal’s job to eat the garbage, it’s right there in the name! Unfortunately, though, the drainage system is designed for water, not food. It may seem more environmentally friendly to put waste food through the disposal, but you are far more likely to end up with pipes clogged with rotting food than anything else.
The greenest and most efficient way to deal with food scraps is simple composting.
Flushing Flushable Wipes
New Zealand plumbing is designed for you to flush toilet paper (which is already an achievement, a great many countries cannot say the same,) and nothing else. Almost every product marketed as ‘flushable’ is nothing of the sort.
These products, alongside sanitary pads, are the bane of sewer systems everywhere. Studies have shown that they don’t break down in water, and are responsible for blockages both at home and at municipal facilities.
Cooking grease, followed by hot water
This sounds plausible, in theory hot water will melt the grease and send it happily on to the waste water treatment plant. In reality, you shouldn’t pour cooking grease down the drain at all, no matter what you follow it up with. The grease will cool and stick to the sides of the pipes until it is blocked entirely, whether in your home or further down the line.
There are products that claim to dissolve the grease, but most of these only push the problem down the system, where it can still cause backups and eventually sewage overflowing into whatever body of water is handy, whether it be indoor plumbing, or a nearby river. Keeping your pipes clean of grease will help keep our beautiful New Zealand waterways clean too.
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