Dental floss that ends up in toilets instead of the garbage can is wreaking havoc at Toronto's waste-water pumping stations and treatment plants.
The stringy stuff, especially newer brands, is shred-resistant and binds with other waste when it ends up in waste-water, the Toronto Star reports.
The banding together, called the "snowball effect," creates clumps that gum up impellers, the rotating devices of pumps that move the waste in the city's sanitary pumping stations.
The Star reports that when strands of floss wrap around the motors of the impellers, they jam and then shut down.
"It takes about a half-hour to take the pumps apart and reassemble them," Richard Boyd, a Toronto Water supervisor, told the newspaper.
"We usually end up pulling pumps apart on a weekly basis."
Boyd said workers have to remove the floss by cutting it and pulling it off by hand.
He said the problem has worsened and has become a common occurrence downtown.
The worst-case scenario could see pumps being disabled, causing a risk of waste-water spilling into the natural watercourse and creating an environmental problem, Boyd said.
One clump of floss found last week was about the size of a softball.
The problem is such a concern that Toronto Water has posted a notice on the city's website: "Don't flush the floss."
"Toilet paper deteriorates, dental floss doesn't," Boyd said.
Residents are being asked to toss floss into garbage bins.
The website also states flushing floss down the toilet adds to the cost of maintaining facilities and reduces the service life of pumping equipment.
