What goes down, must come up… time to get to grips with the unfortunate truth that everything we flush down the toilet doesn’t magically disappear.
Flushing anything other than paper, pee and poo bungs up pipework in our homes, causes shocking blockages in our communal sewers and releases microplastic waste into our seas along with an extra dose of nasty chemicals.
Tell your family, tell your friends: a flush is not forever. We may think it was the last goodbye but all that stuff is lurking, ready to come back to haunt us!
For free-flowing, clean and hygienic loos without the harmful stuff that will come round to bite us in the bum, let’s start making a few changes…
A strict PPP policy at the toilet
The fatberg in Sidmouth sewer? A hideous clog over sixty-four metres long! An estimated eight weeks of backbreaking manual labour to remove!
The length of five double decker buses end to end, this Sidmouth sucker is certainly a big one. Yet similar gruesome wonders lie beneath all of our towns and cities. Gross mountains of so-called ‘flushable’ wet wipes, floss picks, tampons, cotton buds, nappies, contact lenses, ex-goldfish, leftover medicines and all kinds of freaky things that people feel the need to flush, glommed together with concrete-hard clumps of congealed cooking oils and fat poured down our kitchen sinks.
So let’s enforce a strict PPP policy at the toilet. All together now: “Nothing down the loo, except paper, pee and poo!”
Quick tips: That ‘squeaky clean’ feeling from toilet wipes gets addictive, so reproduce the effect without the consequences with a spritz of bottom-friendly toilet spray on a couple of squares of folded TP. Make your own for pennies or treat yourself to a ready made version, such as FreshX.
Recycle your contact lenses and, always, always, return unused medication to a pharmacist for safe disposal.
Collect used cooking oil and fat for recycling into biofuel instead of pouring it away down the kitchen sink. Most large recycling centres will accept this, plus some food waste collection schemes also. Check the ‘Nearby Recycling’ tab on your Greenredeem account page for details.
Banish harsh cleaners and opt for something kinder yet just as effective
Germs can be a worry, and unsightly limescale can be a really gritty problem to shift from the toilet pan, especially if you live in a hard water area. Dousing the toilet seat and pan with harsh antibacterial cleaners and popping a bleach block in the cistern are the standard solutions, but at what cost?
To cut a long story short: all we really need to pay attention to is that glaring red warning sign on the packet. Any product that displays a toxicity warning symbol shouldn’t be going down our toilets and definitely shouldn’t be put on the same places as our delicate parts!
Quick tips: Ditch those bleach blocks and try some natural limescale and hygiene solutions, such as this everlasting FreshaFlush tab (£10). Made from the same industrial silver as used in the drinking water purification process, drop one in your toilet cistern for permanent, safe, germ-free and chemical-free flushes without limescale build-up.
Did you know that tea tree oil is now being used in hospitals to kill MRSA and other superbugs? Mix up your own naturally germ-killing spray cleaner for toilet surfaces: one part water to one part white vinegar, plus ten drops of tea tree oil. Shake up in a clean spray bottle and get neutralising!
How do you help your toilet stay naturally healthy and free-flowing? Inspire us by sharing your ideas with Greenredeem on Facebook or Twitter.
One Response