Looking After Your Drains

We all have a responsibility to protect the environment and one simple way to do this and help to avoid sewer flooding is to avoid flushing certain items down the toilet and prevent cooking waste (fat, oil and grease) being poured into your kitchen sink.

Cooking waste

Please don’t pour fats, oils and greases down the sink or the toilet - even the tiniest amount can cause problems.

They may be in liquid form going down, but they quickly solidify when they meet the cold sewer walls (even if you use detergent or pour hot water down after). The fats stick to the side of the sewer forming a concrete-like solid that attracts other debris, eventually causing a blockage.

Best practice advice: Wait for fat to cool after cooking and pour it in to the re-usable Gunk Pot we provided to you when you moved into your new home, then when it’s full empty it into the bin. Alternatively you can use an empty margarine tub.

Food leftovers and vegetable peelings should not go down the sink, they should be composted at home or binned. Thoroughly scrape plates into the bin before placing them into the sink or dishwasher.

Best practice advice: Use a sink strainer to catch any food debris when rinsing your plates. Sink strainers are also perfect for use in the bath or shower to catch hair that could block the used water pipe.

Safe to flush down the toilet?

Only human waste, toilet tissue and a small amount of household cleaning products should be flushed down the toilet.

We've listed below items that you can't flush down the loo:

• sanitary products
• kitchen roll
• cleansing wipes
• baby and facial wipes
• nappies
• cotton buds
• Dental floss

Best practice advice: Instead use nappy or sanitary bags then put these items in the bin.