te> CC>shouldnt there be a place where you put condoms after use to be 
 te> recycled.
 [... hack hack hack ...]
 te> receptacle rather than throwing them out the car window or
 te> flushing them
 te> into the sewer systems or storm drains.
 
 CC> what happens when you flush condoms?  I was never told the
 CC> reason for not flushing them.  I was just told dont flush them . but i
 CC> was never given a reason why.
  
 Unfortunately, I have WAY to much knowledge of what happens to them.  If
 you live in an area that has combined sanitary and storm sewers,
 during high flows they can "overflow" into local streams/rivers and
 discharge into the environment untreated.  If they make it
 to the treatment plant, they may get screened out or ground up and
 mostly removed, but many times they can accumulate in still areas (stilling
 well's in the settling tanks for instance, along with all the
 wonderful ground up plastic tampon applicators, dental floss, plastic
 sanitary pad backings, and representatives of all the other wonderful
 things that plastic is made into...).  For the most part, they will be
 removed and disposed of by systems or, ahem, plant personal.
 In any event, there is a small quantity of ground up and shredded
 plastic (this includes latex condoms) that leaves every treatment plant
 every day, and all of is non-biodegradable, and all of it is made up
 from petrochemical compounds that will slowly diffuse into the water
 column from chemical activity in the sediments they accumulate in.
 Along will all the wonderfully chlorine that we use to disinfect
 effluent with, you really have to wonder what we the final consequences
 will be.
 Don't flush anything that you wouldn't put in your compost heap. (body
 waste and bath water exclude of course) Keep plastic's, solvents, car
 chemicals, and the like out of your sewers and septic tanks.
 
 ttyl, feel free to aim wastewater treatment question my way, 'tho Tom is
 much better with the chemistry than I am...
      Rob Waite, Sysop, EcoLink BBS               207-353-7670 v.34 8n1
      E-Mail sysop@ecolink.avcnet.org                   Fido 1:326/411
      "What luck for rulers that men do not think."   -    Adolf Hitler
... "A dog is a man's best friend, 'cause women know better." - Red Green 
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
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