Hi! My name is Tanya, and I'm a toilet. I know, I know, it sounds funny. But my story is one you want to hear.

Every day, my humans misuse me! They flush their chewed gum, baby wipes, wet wipes, used floss, q-tips, cotton balls, cigarette butts, paper towels, pills, and um, feminine products, down me! Everything BUT toilet paper! They throw that in the TRASH CAN! Can you believe it? I bet you, Carma (that's the trash can's name) feels just like me, MISUNDERSTOOD.

Well, I think you can tell my humans think I'm the trash can and Carma is the toilet. Except for pooping and peeing. Obviously, THAT part they understand. On a daily basis, I get diapers flushed down my pipes. Gross! Maybe you can sympathize with me. I get my revenge (really it's just karma) by getting clogged up and making them overspend on plumbing services! We toilets need to teach you, humans, how to properly treat us. Unless you want to spend money on plumbing!

Let's start off with what you DO flush down me. Of course, poop and pee (let's just call it human waste), and toilet paper. Toilet paper is the ONLY kind of paper you can flush because it's soft enough to break down through the pipes and won't clog up the pipe system. But what about flushable wipes? So-called "flushable" wipes DO NOT WORK. They clog up your pipes when you flush them down because they don't break down. Now, what do you NOT flush?

You ONLY flush human waste and toilet paper down a toilet.

Everything else belongs in the trash can. At some point, the water you flush and use ends up in the ocean. If you flush things like pills and chemicals, it will harm aquatic life, like turtles, fish, sharks, etc.
Other things, like chewed gum, sticks to the pipes, "But it's just one!" you might say, but over time it will build up and block the pipes! Like I said earlier, that will cost you. Be careful about your kids too, if they're young enough they'll flush things down us that will DEFINITELY cause the MWRA trouble.

Oops, I didn't tell you about the MWRA, did I?

MWRA stands for Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. It's a big group of amazing people who clean the wastewater you use every day so it can be sent into the ocean! Well, it isn't easy. Especially with the things people send them! The human waste too, ew! They deal with that, and with everything they do for you, why would you make their job harder?

Think about it, if you were me, a toilet, would you appreciate being misused? A trash can is a trash can, a toilet is a toilet. You throw trash in a trash can, and you flush human waste and toilet paper down a toilet.

Ok, my time is up! My humans are about to come again, just remember:

IT'S A TOILET, NOT A TRASH CAN!