We’ve talked many times about the importance of keeping chemical drain cleaners out of your drain. It’s simply bad on so many levels. It can eat at your pipes, it offers only a short-term fix, and you’re bringing poisons into your home that don’t need to be there.
But if you’re concerned about the environment, as we all should be, using a mechanical rooter service is the way to for one simple reason: it keeps those poisons out of the environment.
Avoid the Chemicals: There are two basic types of chemical drain cleaners: alkaline and acidic
— Alkaline: Sodium hydroxide, sodium nitrate, sodium stearate, aluminum…all of these are found in common household drain cleaners. Sodium hydroxide is used to dissolve organic tissue, and sodium nitrate has been found to increase deaths from Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. Do you want any more of this in your house or your water supply?
— Acidic: Think the alkaline sounds bad? Sulfuric acid is the main ingredient in acidic drain cleaners, and according to the manufacturer: “potential hazards include violent reaction with water and the production of explosive hydrogen vapors upon contact with most metals; chronic (delayed) and acute (immediate) health hazards if inhaled, ingested, or contacted, including severe eye, flesh and skin burns or even permanent visual loss, inflammation of respiratory membranes, and corrosive burns to all human tissue. It may even be fatal if swallowed.” (via Wikipedia)
But Wait, Isn’t The Water Treated?: Water is treated to a point where it reaches the minimum safety levels as dictated by the government. The safety levels of different chemicals is always changing, and Denver water management has done a pretty darn good job keeping those contaminants below violation levels. But at the same time, wouldn’t it be nice if those levels were even lower by not introducing the chemicals into the water system in the first place?
It’s great that most of the drain water contaminants are removed from the water so that it is safe to drink. But it’s only removed; it’s not gone from the planet. Those chemicals still have to be disposed of somehow, leading to a huge environmental concern: how do you safely store millions of barrels of poisons? Better to use a mechanical rooter service than to send those chemicals down the drain…or to have them ever created in the first place.
Grease Education: While it’s not a poison (except, perhaps, to your arteries!) grease is incredibly important to keep out of the sewer system.
How does this protect the environment? Well, imagine if everyone sent all of their grease down the drain. It causes clogs in the home, which have to be dislodged with rooter service. That sends it into the public sewer system. If restaurants weren’t required to use grease traps, all of that would head into the sewer system as well. That would lead to almost instant backups of the sewer lines, which would require thousands of man-hours a year to clean them, and during most of those they’d be running gasoline-powered dislodging equipment to fight the massive clogs and suck them up (more gasoline) and then transport them to the dump (even more gasoline).
The amount of grease in the sewer system couldn’t be handled by the treatment plant, so some of it would overflow downstream, polluting waterways and endangering wildlife. In other words, keep grease from going down the drain and protect the world!
It’s best to just avoid chemical drains completely and use the proven technology of rooter service. Give Garvin’s a call and you’ll be saving the environment and your sewer system.
