Bag it and Bin it for World Toilet Day – 19th November

This is one of those worthy initiatives that the schoolchild in all of us makes it hard to talk about with a straight face. When a Press Release arrived from Scottish Water announcing World Toilet Day and its own Bag it and Bin It campaign, there was a scramble for the diary to check it wasn’t April 1st.

Then the Press Release mentioned that: ‘Throughout Argyll & Bute schools, workplaces and other organisations are playing special games in order to raise vital funding for WaterAid …’ and it was hard to get the imagination beyond the conundrum of ‘special games’.

But the 19th November really is the day to flush out all our bad habits around the lavatory – mostly in the area of what not to flush.

Joking apart, lavatories can cope with surprisingly little variety of disposals – nothing other than human waste and a modest volume of lavatory paper – and that does not include moist wipes, which should be binned. If we try to get rid of alien material down the pan, we can not only block up our own system or – not to be contemplated – cause it to back up, but we can sabotage the local sewage system, causing raw sewage flooding like that experienced recently in Dunoon.

Scottish Water points out that around 40 per cent of the world’s population (2.6 billion people) live without a proper toilet, yet in this country we abuse our toilets by flushing items which should be bagged and binned.

The suggestion is that we often get this wrong because we don’t realise what happens after we’ve flushed the lavatory. Once the waste is flushed it goes through a rigid treatment process, passing through a series of pumps and filters before it is discharged. What happens then is that the wrong sort of waste causes major problems because it chokes the screens and pumps causing the system to back up and overflow.

And it’s not just about the bathroom. In the kitchen, warm cooking oil poured away and fats washed directly from cooking utensils cause serious problems. They solidify as they cool and build up over time causing blockages in pipes. This can cause flooding and hinder the operation of waste water treatment works and septic tanks. Sewage can flood into gardens and properties creating a mess and a health hazard.

Bagging and binning is the answer, home and away.

What not to flush includes:
Sanitary items: towels, tampons, applicators, panty liners, backing strips, etc.
Disposable nappies, liners and baby wipes
All wipes, including baby, bathroom and toilet
Incontinence pads
Condoms and femidoms
Colostomy bags
Bandages and plasters
Cotton buds, cotton wool
Contact lenses
Toothbrushes

What do you do with dangerous items? Put razors and razor blades in a rigid container and put that in the bin. Take syringes and needles to a needle bank (ask your GP for the location). Return unwanted or unused medicines and contraceptives to your local pharmacy. When the label says ‘disposable’, it does not always mean it can be flushed down the toilet.

And no unwanted alligators. Some fairly large alligators were discovered living in the New York sewers some years ago, around the tine of the Ninja Turtles film. They had been macho pets until they grew and the quick answer before they grew some more was – the flush. Many survived the experience and did their growing below street level.