The three P’s for toilet flushing do not stand for Pee, Poo and Pharmaceutical products.
The third P is in actual fact P for Paper as in Toilet Paper.
It may seem like a good idea to flush unused and out of date medication but it is not. And not just because of the potential for blocked drains. Flushing old medication down the toilet can kill off important bacteria in the water supply and contaminate groundwater, even having an impact on wildlife further down the road.
Flushing medicine down the toilet does not means that it will dissolve automatically. It can take around 30 minutes for medicine to breakdown in a stomach. And that is full of acids designed to break things down. Mucky toilet water may be nasty stuff but it is a lot less acidic that what you have in your stomach. So those medical pills can take hours, even days to break down. And in all that time, they are acting as solid roadblocks that can only help to cause a blockage in your drain. Everybody Pees and Poos. It is as sure a thing as death and taxes. A toilet is not designed to flush anything other than Pee, Poo and Toilet Paper. If you flush medicine down the toilet then decide to go number two, that medicine can help to create a blockage stopping the human waste from properly draining. And you would be truly amazed at how long a human poo can take to breakdown. The rise in camping thanks to the Covid pandemic has created a real problem in countryside locations as the poo is simply not biodegrading quickly enough. In America, certain locations are now selling special backs for human waste that can speed up the process.
But all those medical pills with at least one poo a day getting flushed down the same toilet can easily lead to a blocked drain.
And that is where we come in.
We are a local, reliable blocked drain repair expert since 2006. At JSL Drainage, we have become one of the top Glasgow drainage companies for workmanship, timekeeping, courtesy and tidiness.
With no call out charge and all our drainage work and parts guaranteed, our reputation and quality workmanship has seen us constantly grow through the years to become one of the leading drainage experts in Glasgow and the surrounding Towns and Villages to deal with your burst pipes and blocked drain emergencies.
So what should you do with your old medicine?
Keep the medicine in its original container (marking out the patient details of course) and return to your local pharmacy who can dispose of the medicine safely.