11 Items That Are Taboo for Your Garbage Disposal & Septic System

11. Coffee Beans, Grounds, and Decoction
A barista may have talked you into believing that humanity runs on coffee, but your plumbing lines certainly don’t. Yes, we know it seems perfectly harmless. You might even be tempted into believing that it will give your leaky plumbing a much-needed energy kick. Funny, but just no! Notice how your coffee dregs tend to settle at the bottom? That is precisely what will happen to all those shredded beans. They will settle at the bottom of your drainage pipes, and patiently wait while your plumbing goes amok. Scary! Instead, use them where they belong – in your mean, green compost. They surely will give your plants a big kick!

10. Drugs
We mean the prescribed variety here, though the more notorious ones count too. When you consume medication, there are a lot of chemical reactions that happen in your body. Now imagine if the same were to happen to the water within your plumbing lines. If you allow your expired medication to slide down the garbage disposal, rest assured that it will somehow find its way back into your life, perhaps through the drinking water. Now, this is one poisoning disaster you certainly want to avoid. The better way is to simply follow the FDA’s recommendation. Carefully remove the pills from their container, wrap securely in a plastic bag, and toss them out into your external trash can. If you are concerned about the environment, you can go one step further and hand them over to your closest pharmacy. They typically have a way to dispose of expired drugs and medicine safely.

9. Dough
This includes pizza dough, bread dough, pita dough, baking dough, sourdough – almost every kind of dough. It’s glutinous, it’s super messy, and it sure can clog those drainage pipes. The same also holds true for any other kind of slime. If you must put it in the disposal, ensure that you completely dilute it using hot water, enough that it turns into a very thin liquid. Then pour it down the drain — or better still, into the compost bin.

8. Grease
If you love to cook deep-fried foods, then this might apply to you. As we rinse out our woks and utensils, we tend to allow that last bit of grease to slide through the drain, right into the disposal. Now that is one huge ouch! Just as grease – and this includes all fats and oils – clogs your arteries, it can badly clog your plumbing lines too. And this is one grave situation that no fancy garbage disposal can sort out. So unless you have a plumber on call, save yourself this headache, and keep grease far away from your disposal can. Life is so much easier this way.

7. Hard Seeds, Shells, and Pits
If you love those delicious mangoes, apricots, peaches, plums, lychees, or cherries, watch out for those unyielding pits. Believe us when we say that it is absolutely the pits when that hard nut obstructs an entire plumbing line. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your unassuming garbage disposal will chew it all up into oblivion. This also applies to ingredients which your own teeth refuse to chew. Corn cobs, any kind of shell and bone, and even plastic cutlery should all go into an external trash can.

6. Rice and Pasta
No, we aren’t against delicious gourmet cuisine. But these are foods that naturally bloat in water. So no matter how hard your garbage disposal tries, the moment these foods come in contact with your plumbing lines, they cannot help but inflate to terrible proportions. As you can imagine, this creates a bad situation for your poor plumbing. But if you can carefully toss them into an external trash can, you are sure to save yourself an excruciating clog attack.

5. Starchy Potatoes
A potato peel is never harmless. Likewise, with a banana peel or any other vegetable that bleeds gas. In your garbage disposal, they have the potential to turn into a hideous glob of sticky, stinky, drain-clogging mess. We know it is a lot easier just to let those peels slide into the kitchen drain. But the extra effort of tossing them elsewhere is more than worth it to avoid a plumbing nightmare.

4. Stickers
You are probably wondering how a sticker could get into your garbage disposal. Do you see those lovely codes and labels on your fruits and veggies – “Organic” and “GMO-free” and so on? Yes, that is how they get in. The same is also true with price codes. They all seem harmless on the outside, but can cause havoc inside a drainage pipe. It only takes a couple of seconds or less. So, pull them out, toss them into the trash, and set yourself free from a potential plumbing calamity.

3. Stringy Veggies
Stringy veggies are the ones that contain the most fiber in your food – celery, kale, corn husks, onions (especially their fibrous skin), chard, lettuce – you get the drift. These can tangle up your plumbing lines like no one else can! So watch out before you allow them to slip into your disposal pan. If you have a green thumb, don’t waste them by trashing them. Instead, you can toss them into a compost pit and allow them to disintegrate further. Once done, they work nicely to help grow your cherished plants.

2. Paint
Paint is a hazardous waste. Like medicines, it can quickly pollute your drinking water. So pouring it down your drain is an absolute no-no. Instead, check with your community to find the best disposal method that works for you. And for extraordinary do-gooders, you can always team up with WasteWise, which is committed to safe disposal of hazardous waste. They also promise the advantage of having the “smallest carbon footprint”, so the environmental activist in you feels really good too. Nice!

1. Wood, Metal, and Glass
So, you were rinsing out that pretty glass tumbler, and it unexpectedly broke and cut you. Your first priority is to stop the bleeding. So, you rush to your first aid kit and slap on a band-aid and then go about your work as the rest of the glass menacingly slides into your garbage disposal. Now your disposal needs some first aid too. That sinister glass is more than capable of causing some heavy damage to your plumbing lines. The same goes for chunks of metal. Grab a pair of rubber gloves and immediately weed out these offending items from your disposal.