Modern plumbing is a major convenience, giving you a clean, easy way to deal with dirty water, food, and other waste. But there are a few items you should save for the trash can instead of flushing them down a toilet or rinsing them down the sink. Avoid giving your plumber a headache, and don’t flush these five objects below.

Items You Should Never Flush

1. Paper Towels & Wet Wipes

These items may seem similar to toilet paper, but in fact, the difference is huge. Toilet paper is designed to come apart in water while paper towels and wet wipes stay together when they’re wet. For this reason, they can cause major clogs in sewers and septic systems.

2. Absorbent Materials

This is a broad category, but objects like cotton balls, diapers, and feminine hygiene products should never be flushed. Just like paper towels, they never dissolve. Since they swell as they absorb water, they can get stuck in the pipes and block water from flowing.

3. Medications

It might seem like a good idea to flush unused or expired pills—after all, it keeps them out of the reach of kids and pets. Unfortunately, water treatment facilities aren’t always equipped to remove these medications from the water supply. If more medicine is flushed, more of it circulates back into your drinking water, so find another way to get rid of your medication.

4. Cat Litter

Unless you want to spend a day on toilet repairs and serious cleaning, never flush cat litter. While it may seem like common sense to drop this type of waste in the toilet, cat litter is so absorbent that it can swell significantly larger than its original volume, creating huge clogs that either your or a plumber will have to clean.

5. Grease & Oil

While some amount of fat will inevitably find its way down your drain, never use your sink to dispose of cooking oil and grease. Many types of grease harden as they cool, clogging your pipes—and even if the oil makes it out of your home, it still clogs up sewers and septic systems.

Before you flush an item, think twice about the effect it will have on your plumbing and on the wastewater systems you rely on. Anything absorbent, toxic, or greasy is better off being thrown in the trash. If you need a plumber near Kalispell, MT, call Wild West Plumbing Heating & Drain Service. Their experienced team serves homes and businesses within a 35-mile radius from Kalispell, providing repairs and maintenance for plumbing, pumps, drains, toilets, heating equipment, and more. To arrange service, call them at (406) 752-1244 or send a message online.