Down the sink?

Question

if you pour alcohol down the sink or any other toxic substance, would that be bad for the environment?

Answer 1

Alcohol is a bit strange ,that can always have uses

.

toxic is downright criminal

Water goes into nature and toxic kills life ,and if it is recycled water it comes back to people as well

Answer 2

Toxic liquid that is poured down the drain,  (also sweage drains and the toilet)goes straight to the nearest water way( river, lake, ocean).  The substance kills many water organisms and then when water is taken out to be filtered for drinking water, they take in out of the same lake, ocean, river that the toxic substance was drained to.  So think of it you drink the same water that a toxic substance has been in.....

Answer 3

Some of these answers indicates no understanding of what happens when wastewater goes down the drain.  It travels down the sewer to your local wastewater treatment plant.  These wastewater treatment plants remove paper and other materials then it goes through a natural biological filtering process to clean the water.  Some of these plants have secondary and tertiary treatment to address industrial wastes and those people pour down the drain. Smaller communities do not have these.

http://www.pollutionissues.com/Ve-Z/Wast...



Anyway, while pouring chemicals down the drain is not  a good thing to do, but it won't necessarily harm the environment more than other disposal methods if your treatment plant is designed to handle it.  You have the intent to use the products (you purchased) which mean they will utimately end up somewhere in the environment such as the air or a landfil. If the wastewater plant can handle it, this might be the preferred alternative vs a landfil where it could seep into the groundwater. It all depends on the chemicals, the plant etc..

Answer 4

if you mean rubbing alcohol,wood alcohol and the like yes it is dangerous as alcohol is a volatile liquid and can vapourize to a flameable gas and get ignited anything other than tolietwater and cleaning water waste is the only thing that should be going down the drain.Anything else and they could trace back to entry sewer and charges can be laid it has happened.