Look After Your Loo

[Kintyre Forum News]

Look After Your Loo

Scottish Water is encouraging customers throughout Argyll & Bute to look after their loo on this World Toilet Day (Thursday 19th November).

All too often we take the humble toilet for granted. Around 40 per cent of the world’s population (2.5 billion people) live without a proper toilet yet in this country we abuse our toilets by flushing items which should be bagged and binned instead.

Mrs Jane McKenzie, Scottish Water’s Regional Communities Manager for Argyll & Bute, is advising local customers to think before they flush:

“Scottish Water’s ‘Bag it and Bin it’ campaign reminds our customers to carefully wrap items and dispose of them in the bin – rather than putting them down the toilet.

“The waste water system simply wasn’t designed to cope with items such as sanitary products which can cause blockages in pipes and damage screens at treatment plants.

“In this country we take it for granted that there’s a toilet or two in every home and that simply by flushing all our sanitation needs are taken care of. But for nearly half the world’s population this isn’t the case. They risk disease and even death just by going to the toilet. And that’s the best reason I can think of for not misusing our toilets.”

Large amounts of bathroom waste, such as nappies, wipes, condoms, cotton buds and other sanitary products, are still being disposed of recklessly.

In Scotland it is estimated that a shocking 340 million items of sanitary waste are flushed every year. Annually around £6 million is spent trying to fix these blockages and repair the damage.

The waste, which also extends to solidified cooking fat poured down the sink, collects at the pumping station and chokes the network, causing raw sewage and other bathroom waste to spill out into the environment.

Scottish Water has also found that 55 per cent of all sewer blockages are caused by people disposing of cooking fat down their sink. This also clogs sewers and pumping stations; leading to sewage overflows, potentially damaging the environment.

Mrs McKenzie continued: “Unfortunately, some people don’t seem to realise the repercussions of flushing bathroom waste down the toilet.

“Once the waste is flushed it goes through a rigid treatment process to protect the environment and passes through a series of pumps and filters before it is discharged.

”However, the additional bathroom and sanitary waste causes major problems because it chokes the screens and pumps causing the system to back up and overflow.

“This not only has cost implications because of the regular jet-washing required but also there are environmental implications.

“We realise it is a subject most people don’t want to talk about but it is important people realise the consequences of flushing these items down the toilet and bag and bin them instead.”

Across Argyll & Bute, schools, workplaces and other organisations are playing special games, however there is a serious message too. This day of fund raising is vital in helping WaterAid, the international charity whose mission it is to overcome poverty by enabling the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

A number of Scottish Water employees are ambassadors for WaterAid, including Claire Chapman who last year visited Uganda on behalf of the charity:

“Around the world a child dies every 17 seconds from water-borne diseases. WaterAid has been working to address this problem throughout the Developing World. However the problem is huge and around 40 per cent of the world’s population still don’t have access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“November 19th is World Toilet Day - it is important that people don’t lose sight of why it is so important to raise these funds.”

For further information on World Toilet Day and the work of WaterAid in the Developing World please visit the website at www.wateraid.org.

Notes to Editors

Scottish Water is urging local customers to avoid flushing unsuitable items down their toilet and drains - Bag It and Bin It instead.

Items which should NOT be flushed include:

Sanitary items - towels, tampons, applicators, panty liners, backing strips, etc
Disposable nappies, liners and baby wipes
All wipes, including baby, bathroom and toilet
Incontinence pads
Condoms and femidoms
Cotton buds and cotton wool
Razors and toothbrushes More…
Contact lenses
Colostomy bags and incontinence pads
Used bandages and plasters Syringes and needles
Medicines
The only things which should be flushed down the toilet are human waste and toilet paper (and not too much!).

What to do with dangerous items:

Place razors and razor blades in a rigid (solid) container and put in the bin. Needles and syringes should be disposed of properly using a sharps box or taken to your nearest Needle Bank. Your local doctor or hospital can tell you where this is. Return all unused or unwanted medicines to your local pharmacy. When the label says 'disposable', it does not mean it can be flushed down the toilet.

Fat, oil and grease:

Warm cooking oil poured away and fats washed directly from cooking utensils cause serious problems as they solidify when cooling down and build up over time causing blockages in pipes. This can cause flooding and hinder the operation of waste water treatment works and septic tanks. Sewage can flood into gardens and properties creating a mess and a health hazard. Scottish Water encourages customers to put any used fats and oils into a sealable container and dispose of it with their household rubbish.
Fatty Facts:

Here are some fatty facts to provide food for thought:

• Fat blockages cause pollution, flooding, public health hazards and have major clean up costs.
• Saturated fat causes the most problems. This is animal fat which goes hard when it cools.
• Mono-unsaturated fats such as olive oil and rapeseed solidify when refrigerated so can caused problems in sewers in cold weather

For more information on our ‘Bag It & Bin It’ and ‘Fat Trap’ campaigns visit www.scottishwater.co.uk.
Ends

For further information please contact the Scottish Water Press Office
on (01383) 848 236

[Ship called Dignity]

Items which should NOT be flushed include: Contact lenses

There you go - never thought anything about throwing these down the toilet before! You live and learn.

[Bitter End]

Folk used tae gang tae Shieldhall in Glesga fur cheap false teeth an spectacles !!

[LANDROVER ROGER]

We have a local company.Twyfords by name.Some while ago,due to over production,they had to store new toilet bowls in greenhouses at a local garden centre.Unfortunately,during a hot summer the sunlight faded the glaze on the new toilet bowls and they had to be thrown away.Proves the old adage,"People with glass houses should not stow thrones."

[Malky]

When you're out of town and have your own septic tank you learn quickly what not to put down the toilet or pour down the sink.

I read somewhere that a normal domestic household (connected to the sewerage system) causes more pollution than a large factory, mainly through ignorance of what to dump into the system and a flush and forget attitude.

[History]

It's not a subject folk want to think about but if the public saw what the local guys had to deal with at the screening stage they would think twice about the rubbush they throw down the toilet.

[Ship called Dignity]

It's not a subject folk want to think about but if the public saw what the local guys had to deal with at the screening stage they would think twice about the rubbush they throw down the toilet.

Perhaps people should be shown? Sometimes it is the only way we ever learn.