Home cooking is delicious, nutritious, and fun ... but if you don't know what can and can't go down your pipes, it can also be a plumbing nightmare! Be an informed home cook and keep your plumbing and garbage disposal safe from these items by disposing of them the proper way!
1. GREASE
Whether it's from your morning bacon or from your hamburgers at night, grease can be devastating to your pipes.
When you pour the grease down your drain the grease is usually in liquid form. But, when it cools down, it solidifies into a more solid fat and can create clogs in your pipes. This grease can trap other debris, creating even larger clogs! So, don’t pour grease or oil down your kitchen sink – instead, pour it in a can or bottle until it solidifies, and then put the bottle into your garbage can. Waiting for grease to solidify so you can throw it away is a lot more cost effective than having to get a clog removed!
2. POTATO PEELS
When you peel a potato, those potato peelings don't seem to be very dangerous. But potato peels are delicate, and when water is added, the peels can clump together, creating a sticky paste. Putting potato peels down the drain can cause that paste to clog up the pipes. Poultry skin can also become paste-like when put through a garbage disposal, so make sure you throw away all potato peels and poultry skin instead of putting them down your sink. You could also consider composting the potato peelings!
3. BONES, PITS, AND SEEDS
If you can’t chew it, it shouldn't go in the garbage disposal. Many times people try to dispose of the inedible parts of their fruit, veggies, poultry or fish by using the garbage disposal. This is a mistake! Bones can completely ruin your garbage disposal because they are too hard to grind up. If your garbage disposal does manage to pulverize the bones, they can form large clogs in your pipes. Hard fruit seeds and pits should be thrown away as well.
4. STRINGY VEGGIES AND EGGSHELLS
Sometimes certain veggies have stringy parts on them that can wrap around the inner workings of your garbage disposal and stop them from working. This burns out your garbage disposal's motor and if the veggies (or eggshells) get through your pipes, they can clump together and cause more clogs. Three main culprits of this are celery, onions, and eggshells.
Luckily, onion peels, celery, and eggshells are some of the best materials for compost! Just make sure to wash your eggshells before you put them in the compost bin.
5. RICE AND PASTA
Did you know that pasta is a huge culprit when it comes to plumbing clogs? Putting too much pasta into your drains can cause your sink to back up.
What happens when you put pasta, rice, or quinoa in water? It expands and swells up - and when you put rice or pasta down the drain, it's introduced to a lot of water! It expands and creates a glue-like substance, and that means clogs that stick.
Have a plumbing problem? If you have a Landmark home warranty, you don't have to worry! Landmark covers plumbing systems in your home. Some of our home warranty plans even include hydrojetting, which can help get rid of pesky clogs. Just make sure your plumbing is maintained to the proper specifications. Interested in learning more about home warranties and seeing what they cover? Compare Landmark's home warranty plans here.