(Photo taken from Video "I don't flush" courtesy of the Ontario Clean Water Agency)(Photo taken from Video "I don't flush" courtesy of the Ontario Clean Water Agency)
Windsor

Humourous video urges you to show your toilet some love

The Ontario Clean Water Agency wants you to show your toilet some love by not using it as a garbage can.

Saying it can cause costly damage to your home, municipal infrastructure, and the environment; the agency has produced a humourous video it helps will educate Ontarians about items that are not appropriate to flush.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SIgDpUKa2A

The biggest offenders? According to OCWA, personal hygiene products, fats, oils and grease, pharmaceuticals, and household hazardous waste.

The video, produced in partnership with the Town of Lasalle and five other municipalities, asks residents if they are ready to break their bad habits. The campaign aims to educate the public on how to dispose of items that do not belong in sewers properly.

"The only things meant to be flushed are No. 1, No. 2, and toilet paper," said Christopher Hilkene, the president of the Ontario Clean Water Foundation. "Anything else can directly or indirectly end up polluting our rivers and lakes."

Even personal hygiene products labelled flushable can lead to sewer backups, flooded basements, and raw sewage discharge into waterways.

Canadian municipalities spend more than $250-million a year removing garbage from sewer systems. Fats, oils, and grease will cool as they go down the drain forming so-called "fatbergs," which can damage your local wastewater facility, resulting in higher water rates.

Flushing cleaning supplies, gardening waste, and automobile care products can enter source waters and hurt underwater vegetation and aquatic life.

"Treating your sinks and toilets like trash cans can have major consequences," says Amy Lane with OCWA. "Can you imagine coming home to sewage backup in your basement because your pipes are clogged with grease, wipes, or feminine hygiene products? This doesn't have to happen."

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