Is it Okay to Flush Dental Floss Down the Toilet?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/woman-holding-dental-floss.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn short – no, that\u2019s never a good idea. Dental floss is not something that breaks down easily, i.e. there\u2019s always a good chance of it causing clogs whenever it\u2019s flushed down the toilet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What is more, getting rid of dental floss by just throwing it into your \u201cporcelain throne\u201d and flushing it away can lead to environmental damage. Typically, whenever this kind of material ends up in the waste pipes, it tends to wrap around wipes, toilet paper, and hair, which can have a very negative effect on one\u2019s pipework.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In most cases, dental floss will contain Teflon or nylon, and these synthetics are not biodegradable. And whenever Teflon or nylon don\u2019t break down, there\u2019s a pretty good chance of them causing issues in the drain, including clogging. So, next time you\u2019re about to get rid of used floss by just flushing it down the toilet, remember all of this and just use a trash bin instead.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why Shouldn\u2019t I Flush Dental Floss Down My Toilet?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
As you already know, toilets exist so that humans can easily get rid of their waste. However, that doesn\u2019t mean that these simple but practical pieces of sanitary hardware should be used for the quick and easy disposal of everything <\/em>you want to throw away. In other words, flushing down things such as diapers, baby wipes, and dental floss can lead to both clogging problems and critical environmental damage. Have you been asking yourself: Why Does My Toilet Keep Clogging?<\/a> This might be the answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAs claimed by American Water<\/strong><\/a>, most water pipes don\u2019t have a diameter bigger than 4 inches – they\u2019re quite small. It goes without saying, but this means that folks flushing items that aren\u2019t supposed to be flushed shouldn\u2019t be surprised when they encounter clogging problems or serious plumbing issues.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat is more, hiring an expert to deal with these kinds of troubles is all but cheap – to have a clogged drain fixed, you may have to fork out hundreds of dollars. Therefore, the best course of action would be to simply try and minimize the chances of such an issue happening in the first place by not <\/em>flushing dental floss and other items that are not meant to go down the toile\u2014no matter what type of toilet flush system<\/a> you have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHow Much Time Does Dental Floss Need to Decompose?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
A lot – between 200 and 1000 years. As mentioned above, there\u2019s usually some nylon in dental floss, and nylon can take as much as two centuries to decompose. However, dental floss is also wrapped in plastic, and it can take a whole millennium for this material to decompose.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Silk floss, on the other hand, is a much <\/em>better choice if you care about the environment – not only is it compostable, but also needs only two years to decompose. An important thing to keep in mind here, however, is that the creation of silk requires silkworms to be boiled alive, which is quite a bit unfair to these tiny critters.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSo, How Should I Dispose of Used Dental Floss?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Trash](\"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/trash-can-in-bathroom.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNow that you know that flushing dental floss down the toilet is not recommended, you\u2019re probably wondering – well, how do I get rid of it then?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It would be best if you disposed of dental containers, flossers, dental picks, and dental floss into a garbage bin. While it\u2019s true that this means that your used dental floss will probably end up in a landfill, at least it won\u2019t be creating problems for your piping system.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Keep in mind that you can always go one step further and opt for biodegradable dental floss, which can later be used for composting. By doing so, you\u2019ll be helping the environment and <\/em>practicing excellent oral hygiene at the same time – it\u2019s a win-win situation!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI have also written a post for those wondering whether they can flush cat litter down the toilet <\/a>and for those wondering whether they can flush tampons in the toilet<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’ve been flossing regularly, this thought has surely crossed your mind. So, can you flush dental floss in the toilet? Here’s why it’s not a good idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":null,"ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":null,"header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":null,"astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-250x250.jpg",250,250,true],"medium":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-700x394.jpg",700,394,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"John","author_link":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/author\/kevin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If you've been flossing regularly, this thought has surely crossed your mind. So, can you flush dental floss in the toilet? Here's why it's not a good idea.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4375,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions\/4375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn short – no, that\u2019s never a good idea. Dental floss is not something that breaks down easily, i.e. there\u2019s always a good chance of it causing clogs whenever it\u2019s flushed down the toilet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What is more, getting rid of dental floss by just throwing it into your \u201cporcelain throne\u201d and flushing it away can lead to environmental damage. Typically, whenever this kind of material ends up in the waste pipes, it tends to wrap around wipes, toilet paper, and hair, which can have a very negative effect on one\u2019s pipework.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In most cases, dental floss will contain Teflon or nylon, and these synthetics are not biodegradable. And whenever Teflon or nylon don\u2019t break down, there\u2019s a pretty good chance of them causing issues in the drain, including clogging. So, next time you\u2019re about to get rid of used floss by just flushing it down the toilet, remember all of this and just use a trash bin instead.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why Shouldn\u2019t I Flush Dental Floss Down My Toilet?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
As you already know, toilets exist so that humans can easily get rid of their waste. However, that doesn\u2019t mean that these simple but practical pieces of sanitary hardware should be used for the quick and easy disposal of everything <\/em>you want to throw away. In other words, flushing down things such as diapers, baby wipes, and dental floss can lead to both clogging problems and critical environmental damage. Have you been asking yourself: Why Does My Toilet Keep Clogging?<\/a> This might be the answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n As claimed by American Water<\/strong><\/a>, most water pipes don\u2019t have a diameter bigger than 4 inches – they\u2019re quite small. It goes without saying, but this means that folks flushing items that aren\u2019t supposed to be flushed shouldn\u2019t be surprised when they encounter clogging problems or serious plumbing issues.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What is more, hiring an expert to deal with these kinds of troubles is all but cheap – to have a clogged drain fixed, you may have to fork out hundreds of dollars. Therefore, the best course of action would be to simply try and minimize the chances of such an issue happening in the first place by not <\/em>flushing dental floss and other items that are not meant to go down the toile\u2014no matter what type of toilet flush system<\/a> you have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A lot – between 200 and 1000 years. As mentioned above, there\u2019s usually some nylon in dental floss, and nylon can take as much as two centuries to decompose. However, dental floss is also wrapped in plastic, and it can take a whole millennium for this material to decompose.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Silk floss, on the other hand, is a much <\/em>better choice if you care about the environment – not only is it compostable, but also needs only two years to decompose. An important thing to keep in mind here, however, is that the creation of silk requires silkworms to be boiled alive, which is quite a bit unfair to these tiny critters.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Now that you know that flushing dental floss down the toilet is not recommended, you\u2019re probably wondering – well, how do I get rid of it then?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It would be best if you disposed of dental containers, flossers, dental picks, and dental floss into a garbage bin. While it\u2019s true that this means that your used dental floss will probably end up in a landfill, at least it won\u2019t be creating problems for your piping system.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Keep in mind that you can always go one step further and opt for biodegradable dental floss, which can later be used for composting. By doing so, you\u2019ll be helping the environment and <\/em>practicing excellent oral hygiene at the same time – it\u2019s a win-win situation!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I have also written a post for those wondering whether they can flush cat litter down the toilet <\/a>and for those wondering whether they can flush tampons in the toilet<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve been flossing regularly, this thought has surely crossed your mind. So, can you flush dental floss in the toilet? Here’s why it’s not a good idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":null,"ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":null,"header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":null,"astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-250x250.jpg",250,250,true],"medium":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-700x394.jpg",700,394,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/dental-floss.jpg",1280,720,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"John","author_link":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/author\/kevin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If you've been flossing regularly, this thought has surely crossed your mind. So, can you flush dental floss in the toilet? Here's why it's not a good idea.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4375,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4369\/revisions\/4375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsbathrooms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Much Time Does Dental Floss Need to Decompose?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So, How Should I Dispose of Used Dental Floss?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n