What Your Plumber Wishes You'd Stop Doing To Your Drain

When you call your plumber for your kitchen, it's usually a little bit too late. The damage is already done and the drama of clogged drains, leaky pipes, or indoor floods has already unfolded. If you could catch your plumber before disaster strikes, there are a few things they would probably tell you about your drain and what to stop pouring down there. 

We're all used to hearing about the regular kitchen and bathroom stuff clogging up drains. Cooking grease, food debris, coffee grounds, and hair are all well-known nightmares for your pipes since they build up inside over time, creating a clog that only a well-trained plumber can remove. What you might not know is that some things — namely drugs and medications — are not just bad for your pipes, they're bad for your entire water supply if you flush them down the toilet or pour them in the sink.

Whether your drugs are expired or you just don't need them, flushing them down the toilet or pouring them down the sink can contaminate your local drinking water and ecosystem. These drugs can remain in the water even after they pass through a water treatment plant, and they can circle back to your tap water. They can also end up in lakes, rivers, and groundwater and cause serious issues for wildlife, such as preventing fish from reproducing. 

In the end, they can even harm humans by making bacteria more resistant to antibiotics, which can cause diseases to spread among humans. This is true for all types of medicine, whether liquid or in pill form. This is even true for over-the-counter medicine such as aspirin or ibuprofen, other common drugs such as hormonal birth control, and pet medications. Instead of pouring them down the drain, there is a right way to dispose of old medications, such as take-back events planned in your area by the U.S. government. Some pharmacies also have drop-off boxes exactly for this purpose. 

It's not just medication that's polluting your water supply. The same applies to chemicals, including some that are used in common household cleaning products such as bleach. Even products that are advertised as being specifically designed for drains, such as chemical solutions to remove clogs, can contaminate local water supplies and poison wildlife. Instead, use natural household ingredients to unclog a drain, or call a plumber.