Disposable Cell Phones Doesn’t Mean That You Can Flush Them!   11/16/2005 - 900 views,

Ok, sure, disposable cell phones are meant to be disposed of. But cell phones are not meant to be flushed down the toilet.

Remember when I told you about the problem of cell phones getting flushed down the toilet? You didn’t believe me, did you?

Well, it has now risen to such a level that it is actually causing a problem on a system-wide basis. Yes, really. In fact, the city of Helsinki, Finland, has such a problem with cell phones clogging their sewers (not to mention that incessant ringing!) that they say that at one Helsinki sewage treatment plant alone, 1000 tons - that’s 2,000,000 pounds - of solid waste (not that kind of solid waste!) is collected from that one plant alone. Oh sure, it’s not just cell phones, but an increasing percentage of it is.

And it’s not just in Finland. The Register reports that in the UK, an estimated 600,000 cell phones get flushed every year. My gosh, remember when there weren’t 600,000 cell phones in an entire country?

So how is it that these phones are finding their way into the sewer system? Is it intentional? Accidental? Fate?

It’s probably true that in the vast majority of cases it’s accidental, although it’s certainly likely that people also intentionally flush their cell phones to try and destroy some evidence. After all, people do all sorts stupid things with cell phones. Remember Danny Aquino?

So, the next time you have a hankering to whip it out in the bathroom, remember, if it’s mellow, let it yellow. If it’s brown, flush it down. But if it rings, keep it out of the d*mn toilet.