Hamilton battles ‘unflushables’ in new campaign
Mind your pees and poos (and paper), the only things to go down toilets
Richard the Turd, Sir Peeter and the Duchess of Swirl will be the guardians of Hamiltonians’ toilet bowls for the next few years.
The three cartoon characters are part of the City of Hamilton’s multi-year education campaign called Own Your Throne urging residents to only flush the three “Ps” down the toilet: pee, poo and paper.
Hamilton’s director of water and wastewater, Andrew Grice, said officials are seeing too many hygiene items such as tampons, wipes and dental floss ending up at the water treatment facility. Other no-nos include hair, cigarette butts, cotton balls, fabric items, tissues, food waste, cat litter, bandages and dead goldfish and other animals.
“The wipes clog the pipes and increase our cost to remove the items,” Grice said.
Hamilton is following in the wake of other Canadian and United States municipalities, including Vancouver and Toronto, that have been urging their residents to stop dumping wipes, grease, household oils and food fats. In the United States some municipalities have sought legal action against companies that make disposable wipes.
Grease, for instance, congeals and blocks sewer mains. It acts like a glue, binding things together creating further sewer clogs. In 2013, the City of London discovered what happens when grease is poured down the drain unchecked: It creates what was called a “fatberg.” In London’s experience a 14-tonne, bus-sized clog that prevented residents from flushing their toilets.
The other major problem wastewater officials are dealing with, said Grice, include people flushing wipes down the toilet. Even though companies advertise that disposable wipes can be flushed, wastewater officials argue they are one of the main causes of millions of dollars of wastewater infrastructure repairs.
To help Hamilton officials get their message across, they have recruited Richard the Turd, Sir Peeter and the Duchess of Swirl. These cartoon heroes, created by a consultant, will become prominent spokespersons talking about the need to protect the environment, while also extending the life of sewer pipes on brochures, and other education materials that will be featured prominently in recreation centres, restrooms and other city areas, said Grice.
The cost, which was part of a $120,000 funding allocation approved by council earlier this year to develop an education campaign, isn’t that much, said Grice. He said Richard the Turd, with his helmet and sword, Sir
Peeter, holding his lance and shield, and the Duchess or Swirl, with a tiara but a mace handy in one hand, have been featured in tweets on Twitter, and in videos over the next year. City officials even have scale-model plush characters, which could be offered to residents if the characters become popular
“We will see how this goes,” said Grice.