What can you flush down the toilet? Tea leaves? Bones? Rats?

[Guest realmayo]

Is flushing used tea leaves down the toilet appropriate?

[roddy]

Come on, give us the full story. Who told you you were being disgusting and culturally insensitive?

[Guest realmayo]

Nono, nothing like that. At the back of my mind I've got a feeling that lots of people do it, but then again I could have misremembered dire warnings not to do it. What's the score?

EDIT: Am I being disgusting and culturally insensitive?

[roddy]

I could have misremembered dire warnings not to do it.

Sure you're not thinking of toilet paper? Easily confused.

I flush tea leaves. Nothing worse than trying to get the last cold damp tealeaf off the bottom of the mug and into the bin. Swill 'em into the toilet.

[gougou]

I learned not to flush any edibles down the toilet, as it will attract rats. They are able to climb up vertical pipes, and if your pipes don't have something to block them, they might eventually show up in your toilet.

[roddy]

I learned to flush edibles down the toilet to keep the rats well-fed. Otherwise they leave little wet footprints on their way to the kitchen.

[skylee]

Keep a cat.

[roddy]

Skylee, you forgot to answer the question. What do you do with your used tea leaves?

[skylee]

Uh, I don't drink tea now. I drink wine and water at home, so no tea leaves troubles. But I do flush away all the soup of my instant noodle dinner.

[Guest realmayo]

Ah, so a toilet can be a reasonable place to dispose of such, erm, non-digested waste. I knew I wasn't making it up!

[Guest realmayo]

Sure you're not thinking of toilet paper?

While we're on this topic, has anyone actually blocked up Chinese plumbing this way?

[roddy]

No, and since seeing the attendant in a hutong public toilet take the waste paper basket full of stinking toilet paper, upend it, use his mop to jam the contents down the hole-in-the-floor and then flush, I don't worry about doing so either.

[gougou]

take the waste paper basket full of stinking toilet paper, upend it, use his mop to jam the contents down the hole-in-the-floor

I suppose that also helps against rats...

[jbradfor]

Nope, it just makes them stronger.

[Xiao Kui]

While we're on this topic, has anyone actually blocked up Chinese plumbing this way?

In the older buildings in Kunming (or even new buildings with narrow pipes) my friends and I have definitely blocked up the toilet with paper - in Chengdu it doesn't even take paper It's so disgusting having to take out the bathroom toilet paper garbage out every day. I'm happy my new apartment has a Western toilet with a turbo flusher so the toilet paper goes down along with everything else.

[randall_flagg]

I am not a rebel, but I flush down everything whenever possible! Even against my ex-landlords' advice. And nothing has ever happened....knock on wood!

[Shadowdh]

Even at some of the hostels that advised against flushing stuff down the loo I still did and had no problems... thank goodness... no super rats nor blocked loos... btw some of the funniest stuff is in this thread... woohooo... :mrgreen:

[ABCinChina]

I also flush food waste down the toilet! It sure beats that food waste from stinking up the place. My GF said that I shouldn't do that because of blockage but since we have no "sink garbage disposal" unit, old habits die hard.

[mr.demoman]

the general worry is blockage. If the pipe is wide enough, no problem i guess. hehe, sometimes it blocks in my home,becuz Dad pour whatever into the toilet, and then Mom almost raises the roof.

is the thread in food section? hehe:mrgreen:

[roddy]

Wait, food waste? What are we talking here? Noodles? Orange peel? Bones? Milk bags?