Education & Helpful Tips

Do Not Flush These Items Down the Toilet

• Disinfecting, Baby, or Flushable Wipes
• Paper Towels
• Facial Tissue/Napkins
• Cloth/Towels 
• Feminine Care Products

Not only do clogs affect our pipes, but they can affect yours; potentially causing a backup and expensive phone call to your plumber. If wipes get stuck in your home lateral pipe, a clog could cost you thousands to fix. A lateral is a pipe that transports water used inside your home out to your city's sanitary sewer system in the street. 

Avoid Clogged Drains and Contamination

Dispose of all fats, oils, and grease in the garbage. This includes butter, cooking oils, fry oil, oils, dairy, and grease left from cooking meats and/or anything else that gels or solidifies at room temperature. While these will go down the drain or toilet when warm or with soap, but as they cool or mix with water they solidify in your pipes creating a clog that is very messy and difficult to remove.

Never pour or flush hard chemicals, paint, oil, pesticides, cement, plaster, or more than the recommended amount of drain cleaner down your drains.

Safe Medication Disposal

Unused medication can sometimes find its way into the wrong hands, so it’s critical to dispose of it properly. Each spring and fall, Henderson Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) hosts its bi-annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Days to raise awareness about the potential of prescription drug misuse and encourage people to remove unneeded medications.

However, some medications can be safely disposed of at home by doing the following:

• Throw it in the trash: Almost all medicines, except those on the FDA’s flush list, can be thrown into household trash. Prescription and over-the-counter pills, liquids, drops, patches and creams must remain intact, but should be removed from their original containers and mixed with something undesirable such as coffee grounds or cat litter, then placed in a secure bag or container. Don’t forget to scratch out all personal information on prescription labels.