dental floss is a serious threat to municipal sewage systems .
there was a feature on our local station recently . the "sewage manager" pleaded with the citizens to "please do not throw dental floss into the toilet !!!" it gums up the whole disposal system .
hbg
Quote:... dental floss is wreaking havoc at several of Toronto's waste-water pumping stations and treatment plants. How?
The answer is simple: People are flushing it down the toilet.
Dental floss, especially newer brands, is shred-resistant, and when strands end up in waste-water, they bind with other waste, creating what one Toronto Water supervisor called a "snowball effect." Clumps are formed – one found last week was about the size of a softball – and they gum up impellers, which are part of the pumps in the city's sanitary pumping stations. Strands of floss wrap around the motors of the impellers – rotating devices that move the waste. When the motors don't have enough power to overcome the jam, they shut down.
