In those heady, early pandemic days of March and April, nothing seemed more important than toilet paper. The stuff we buy with the intention of soiling and then throwing away suddenly became valuable enough to cause fistfights on grocery shelves and uncontrollable crowds at Costco, forcing many people to seek out alternatives. The problem with most toilet paper alternatives, however, is that they should never be flushed, and that includes a common alternative you might think is relatively harmless: tissues. Toilet paper may be in abundance again (did you squeeze out your Charmin today?), but when we reshared this “but for the grace of God” story about a reusable alternative to cloth laundry (nope) earlier today, one of our Twitter followers jumped in with an important reminder:

Now, I knew that for the health of our waste management systems, we shouldn’t flush wipes down the toilet, even so-called “flushable wipes,” but not flushing Kleenex down the toilet was new to me. But here’s the story: Cynthia Finley, the director of regulatory affairs at the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, spoke to the New York Times a few years ago about what to flush down the toilet and what not to flush, and tissues were definitely on the naughty list:

Facial tissues may seem safe to flush because they look so much like toilet paper. But unlike toilet paper, facial tissues are treated with a chemical binder that takes time to break down and disintegrate when flushed, Ms. Finley said.

Even tissue maker Kleenex tells you not to do this in an FAQ on their website (ignore the fact that it's in the context of them telling you not to worry about flushing a "flushable" tissue, which you absolutely should not). I can't count how many tissues I've mindlessly tossed in the trash instead of the recycling bin, but now I know never to do that again. Consider it added to the list, along with cutting the plastic rings that hold soda cans together and wearing a damn mask.