I did something stupid, real stupid. I flushed about a half pint of used cooking oil down my toilet. Right afterwards I checked online and read never to put oil down drains. I have one of those old flushometer toilets with tons of pressure and it went right down. Im a effed? Is there anything I should do?
Probably not, but I wouldn’t keep doing it, particularly if you’re on a septic system rather than the city sewer. The problem is that oil is 1) insoluble in water and 2) floats, so that putting it down a drain can cause clogging when it congeals. A toilet is usually on a 3- or 4-inch drainpipe, so is less prone to clogging than a much smaller sink drain. Still, the grease can coat the pipe walls, forming a sticky, gooey surface which grabs onto other stuff, which can eventually plug the drainpipe pretty good, especially at bends or traps. Grease also is damaging to septic systems by “poisoning” them.
The primary reason I have heard for not putting any kind of oil into the drains is that it is very hard on your local waste treatment facility. It is their job to clean up the sewer wastes before discharging back to the local ecology. It is my understanding that oil is difficult to remove and does some harm to the facility’s equipment, like clogging filters and killing off the bacteria that helps break down the wastes.
Plus, you just might blow someone up 