1. Kitty Litter

It may seem natural to flush your cat's kitty litter down the toilet. After all, their kitty litter contains their waste. However, your cat's kitty litter should never be flushed down your toilet.

To start with, cat litter is designed to clump up when it gets wet. That is how you are able to remove your cat's waste from your kitty litter without changing it completely.

The hardening property of cat litter makes it dangerous for your drainage and septic system. When kitty litter combines with all the water in your toilet, it hardens up, clogging your pipes, and if it makes it that far, your septic tank.

Additionally, your cat's waste contains a parasite called Toxoplasma. Toxoplasma is dangerous to humans, and cannot be effectively removed from your wastewater via the bacteria in your septic tank.

2. Hair

Flushing the hair from your hairbrush down the drain or flushing the hair from the catcher in your shower catches down the drain, may seem like an easy way to deal with excess hair. However, that is not how you should deal with hair.

Hair contains proteins which the bacteria in your septic tank cannot break down. Human hair can take hundreds of years to break down. All the hair you flush down your toilet can get stuck in your drainage pipes, bind with other waste, and clog up your drainage pipes. It adds to the sludge layer in your septic tank and can obstruct the operation of your leach field.

3. Chewing Gum

It is not advisable to swallow your gum, and it is also not a good idea to flush your used gum down your toilet. Just throw it in the trash when you are done with it.

Chewing gum, even after you are done with it, is still sticky. It can easily get stuck in your pipes on the way down the drain to your septic tank. Once inside your septic tank, it can get stuck to the inside of your tank. Even if it doesn't get stuck to the inside of your tank, it will not break down in your septic system.

4. Dead Fish

When a pet fish dies, contrary to what you see in the movies, you shouldn't hold its funeral over a toilet bowl. Your dead pet fish, even if it seems small to you, is big enough to get caught in the pipes leading from your toilet to your septic tank and damage your pipes. Additionally, even if the fish makes it all the way to your septic tank, it isn't going to break down inside of your tank.

Instead, when your fish dies, dig a little hole and bury it outside. It will easily decay in the ground. Or, just throw it in the trash.

5. Uneaten Food

Almost everyone has heard a tale of a kid, forced to eat something they don't like, loading it up in their cheeks, and going to the bathroom to spit up the food into the toilet, flushing away the evidence.

However, flushing food down your toilet is not a good idea. The food will clog up your pipes, and whole food takes a while to be digested inside of your septic tank. If you flush food often enough down the toilet, you will have to pump your septic tank more often.

When it comes to your toilet, stick to only flushing your waste and toilet paper down the toilet. Make sure everyone in your household, young and old, know what they can't flush down the toilet. If you are concerned about your septic tank, give us a call at Upstate Septic Tank, LLC, and we can come out, inspect your septic tank, and make sure things are working correctly.