Every bathroom in the apartment has a bin beside the toilet, and it is there for a reason. Canarian waste plumbing is built with narrower pipes than most of northern Europe, and it does not forgive the things a British or Dutch system swallows without complaint.
The actual rule
Body waste and toilet paper go in the toilet, in moderate quantities. Everything else goes in the bin.
That “everything else” is broader than people expect: wet wipes of every description, cotton pads and buds, sanitary products, dental floss, cleaning cloths. The single most common cause of trouble is wipes sold as flushable, which disperse far too slowly for a system like this.
Why the pipes are narrower
Island infrastructure tends to be built to a tighter specification than mainland systems: shorter runs, smaller diameters, less water available to move things along. Add older buildings with original pipework in many towns, and the margin for error narrows further.
It is not a sign of anything being wrong. It is a system designed for a place where water is scarce and everything had to be shipped in.
If something does go wrong
Tell us immediately rather than waiting to see whether it clears. A slow drain caught early is a five-minute problem; a full blockage on a Sunday is not.
This is one of several small differences that catch visitors out in their first day or two — along with restaurants closing all afternoon and the taste of the tap water.
The bins outside
The other half of this is what happens to the waste once it leaves the flat. Spanish towns use communal street bins rather than household collection, colour-coded by type: general waste, yellow for packaging and plastics, blue for paper and card, green for glass.
The nearest set is a short walk from the apartment, and we point them out at check-in. Take your rubbish down before you leave rather than leaving it in the flat — this is a warm island and it does not take long for that to become obvious.
Why we mention it at all
It feels like an odd thing to write a page about. But of everything that goes mildly wrong during a stay, plumbing is the one that turns an evening into a problem, and it is entirely avoidable with thirty seconds of knowledge.
Everything else on this coast you can work out as you go.