Hey you with the floss! Don't even think about flushing that down the toilet.

A few (maybe five) dentist appointments ago, I resolved to floss my teeth every single day. The first month was really tough, but once I got into the routine, it stuck.

For as long as I’ve been flossing regularly, I’ve been disposing of my dental floss in the toilet. I mean, it makes sense: I floss in the bathroom, and the toilet is right there, waiting to receive my stringy offering. I also believe at one time (though I may be wrong about this), I actually wrote a little song about floss in the toilet.

Well, according to an article Jenna sent me today, I should not dispose of my floss in this manner. It seems that floss,

especially newer brands, is shred-resistant, and when strands end up in waste-water, they bind with other waste, creating what one Toronto Water supervisor called a “snowball effect.”

Clumps are formed – one found last week was about the size of a softball – and they gum up impellers, which are part of the pumps in the city’s sanitary pumping stations.

The size of a softball? That’s both awesome and disgusting. The article goes on to explain that this problem is particularly common in downtown Toronto, and advises residents to place floss in their waste bins instead.

I’ll try to do that. Or maybe I’ll just start my own clump of used floss, and hope it grows to the size of a basketball. Is there a Guiness World Record for that?