Households have been warned against flushing a number of items down the toilets in order to prevent blockages in the system.
Dubliners have been urged to only flush the 3 Ps (pee, poo, and paper) as part of the Think Before You Flush campaign. Throwing down other items will have a detrimental effect on our wastewater network and treatment plants, surface water overflows and sewage-related litter on our beaches and in our oceans, damaging our marine environment.
These items, called the "dirty dozens", include wet wipes, cotton pads, dental floss, hair, paper towels, medicine, tampons, food items, contact lenses, condoms, cigarette butts, and cotton bud sticks. Just over one in five adults regularly admit to flushing items down the toilet, new research has revealed.
Read more: Dirtiest items in your home according to expert
Unlike toilet paper, which is designed to disintegrate quickly in our pipes and sewage systems, other items don’t break down easily. Additionally, householders have also been warned against pouring fats, oils, and greases (FOGs) from cooking down the kitchen sink.
Instead of flowing freely they cool and harden as they travel along the wastewater network, when these FOGs combine with wipes and other sewage-related litter such as hair and dental floss, fatbergs can form. Uisce Éireann clears hundreds of blockages including fatbergs from the wastewater network every week.
The Think Before You Flush and Think before You pour campaigns are operated by Clean Coasts in partnership with Uisce Éireann and St. Colmcille Junior National School, Ballybrack.
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