The Three P's

[+ Lucky]

The LA Times today editorializes on what we should put in the toilet. Pee and Poop are obvious, but read on to learn the third P:

By The Times Editorial Board

Nov. 15, 2023 3 AM PT

 

What goes in the toilet, and what goes in the trash? It’s the kind of discussion one has with a 2-year old, and is all the more delightful because it’s a topic generally regarded as taboo in polite conversation. You get to say things such as only “the three Ps” — pee, poop and paper — go in the toilet. Everything else goes in the trash can. Right?

Alas, modern human life is much more complicated and the conversation far more difficult, though fundamentally important for health, safety and good manners. The last century has given us three new Ps to contend with: plastics, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals. We should not flush these, though throwing them in the trash doesn’t mean they won’t come back to harm us.

Microplastics are found in human blood. PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are known popularly as “forever chemicals” and are associated with a host of bad health effects — taint the drinking water of numerous communities. Drugs meant to treat deadly disease in human beings end up causing illness in other creatures when, discarded, they leach into the water.

California is currently hammering out regulations that will govern the operation of a new generation of water purification and recycling technologies, and those systems will be major steps forward for health and safety. Water that for too long has been dismissed as merely part of the waste stream, to be flushed into the ocean and supposedly never seen again, will be cleansed and monitored at a level not previously attained to form a buffer against drought. That makes it more important than ever to revisit our approach to managing the three Ps and understand where it may fall short.

 

The first two — the ones that pass out of the human body — are treated to kill pathogens. Liquids and solids are separated and, to oversimplify a bit, liquids go to the ocean and solids are used to enrich farm soil.

Human waste fertilizes crops? Yes. Anyone who has bought a bag of Milorganite fertilizer to spread on their lawn and keep it green has in some sense become a customer of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which produces the product from carefully treated biosolids, the word used to describe human — well, you know.

 

Los Angeles was once dotted with “sewage farms” fertilized, disturbingly, with untreated waste, according to “Brown Acres,” Anna Sklar’s fascinating 2008 history of the L.A. sewer system. They produced vegetables that were considered safe to eat only if cooked. Now L.A.’s waste is properly treated, after which much of it is trucked to farmland in Kern County alongside Interstate 5. Crops there are lush and healthy. Adjacent, unsupplemented land looks like a moonscape.

The third P is more problematic. Toilet paper is made to dissolve, but there are arguments and lawsuits over some other products labeled “flushable” (baby wipes and moistened cleaning pads, for example) that municipal sanitation agencies say clog sewer systems and cost taxpayers and ratepayers millions of dollars each year to clear.

 

Should so-called flushables go into the trash instead? Yes. Municipalities have long lists of things people commonly flush but shouldn’t, including facial tissues, tampons, dental floss and indeed any non-organic material.

But don’t think placing them in the trash renders them harmless. Plastics (like dental floss) in landfills become microplastics that leach any chemicals they were treated with right back into the water. Unused pills are bad news whether flushed or tossed. PFAS leach from some types of paper plates, takeout containers and other things that generally are placed in the blue recycle bin but shouldn’t be.

Some used clothes, old carpets, in fact anything that “miraculously” resists stains, moisture or wrinkling, may leach PFAS. They obviously can’t be flushed but really shouldn’t go into the bin either — not the green one, the blue one or the black one. Many people put them there anyway.

The companies that produce these wonder products make them appear affordable because they “externalize” their costs — they offload them, unseen, onto our sewer bills; our medical bills; our bodies; the land, water and air. How to properly reallocate and recoup the costs of dealing with things that we’re not supposed to flush or toss — but often do anyway — is one of the challenges of the 21st century.

One of the solutions to this conundrum are so-called extended producer responsibility laws, in which manufacturers are forced to assume liability for the end life of their products. California has passed a number of such laws including the Paint Stewardship Program and Senate Bill 54, the sweeping plastic packaging reduction bill passed last year.

The basic rule remains sound: Flush only the three Ps. For now, everything else has to go into the trash, though we need to recognize the hazards that filling our landfills continues to cause and move quickly to a more sustainable system.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-15/editorial-toilet-or-trash

[Luv2play]

I have a fourth p that I flush down the toilet and that is pest. I'm referring to mice that I trap in my house.

Living in a very old house built of stone, the basement walls are a little porous and mice tend to come in during the fall when the weather is turning colder. So when I trap them I throw their carcasses in the toilet. 

Our town has a 3 stage sewage treatment plant and I think it is capable of reducing the mouse to liquid. Anyway I hope that is the case. I once took a tour of the treatment plant and it was very impressive. Completely separate from the water treatment plant, which I also toured.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Luv2play

[+ Charlie]

Our local waste disposal company provides us with three separate disposal containers: trash, recyclables, and "green" waste, which includes composted food and yard waste, such as plant and tree trimming. Interestingly, we have been told that dog poop, which many people consider organic matter like food waste, should not go into the green waste bin with the compost, but into the trash bin. Since I haven't been able to train Fido to use the toilet, I always collect it and put it into a separate plastic bag in the trash bin.

[pubic_assistance]

I own several rental properties. Those with an abundance of single women tenants always need more frequent plumbing maintenence. It's unbelievable the amount of crap that women flush down their toilet.

 

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

4 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

I own several rental properties. Those with an abundance of single women tenants always need more frequent plumbing maintenence. It's unbelievable the amount of crap that women flush down their toilet.

 

I used to work in sewerage.  I guess that's where I became known locally as a Man Hole expert 😉.  Besides "flushable" wipes which are a big problem all of the time, our biggest trouble locations were:

(1) Downstream of high schools, where manholes would fill with used tampons flushed from inside the high school,

(2) Pump stations on Sunday mornings, when all the flushed used condoms from the night before clogged the pumps, and

(3) Low income neighborhoods where excessive grease from cooking clogged the pipes like an old man's arteries.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Vegas_Millennial
Self proclaimed Man Hole expert

[+ Pensant]

These are things I think about when I run past the local sewage treatment plant. The sheer ignorance and, yes, stupidity of most consumers is a huge problem. The article cites a major issue in American: the willful propensity of manufacturers to pass on social costs to the general population. 

[pubic_assistance]

9 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

(3) Low income neighborhoods where excessive grease from cooking clogged the pipes like an old man's arteries.

Yes !

I have a building in Harlem where a bunch of Puerto Ricans live. No matter how many times I've told them to NOT dump grease and paper towels down the drain or in the toilet...the sewer backs up at least twice a year. Blocked with grease and paper towels. They just don't care.

[Ali Gator]

On 11/15/2023 at 7:52 PM, pubic_assistance said:

I own several rental properties. Those with an abundance of single women tenants always need more frequent plumbing maintenence. It's unbelievable the amount of crap that women flush down their toilet.

 

I use one of the unisex bathrooms at work. There are signs everywhere, asking users not to flush 'feminine hygiene products' down the toilet, or 'personal cleansing wipes'. I don't think this helps as this bathroom is 'out of order' more days than it's 'in order'.