Huge mass of wet wipes removed from city sewer
CALL FOR MANDATORY ‘DO NOT FLUSH’ LABELLING ON PACKAGING
THESE disgusting images show a huge mass of wet wipes that have been removed from a Hull sewer.
The shocking images have been released by Yorkshire Water as the company reveals it has spent “millions” on resolving blockages caused by wet wipes and sanitary products being wrongly flushed down the toilet.
Yorkshire Water has since called for mandatory “do not flush’” labelling on wet wipes, after research found current labelling is leaving consumers confused. The research revealed 20 per cent of people view wet wipes as “essential” and 85 per cent of people regularly purchase at least one type of wipe.
However, it’s the packaging of wipes and instructions on how to dispose of them that causes confusion, particularly in the case of toilet wipes and baby wipes, which are the most likely to be flushed.
Once flushed, these wipes – even those labelled as “fine to flush” – do not breakdown in the sewer network and can develop into blockages, which can lead to restricted toilet use for customers, sewage escapes into properties and gardens and, in some cases, pollution in local watercourses.
The research found that one in five believe even wipes without a “fine to flush” label can be flushed and 38 per cent said they would flush biodegradable wipes as they will dissolve or breakdown faster.
Ben Roche, director of wastewater at Yorkshire Water, said: “Consumers are currently faced with an array of different logos and claims on packets, including “fine to flush”, “do not flush” and “biodegradable” labels. Those labelled “fine to flush” often indicate only one wipe should be flushed at a time, but often this is not followed or understood by customers, with less than half saying the logo indicated only one wipe should be flushed at a time.
“Even then, these wipes generally contain plastic so do not break down in the sewer as toilet roll does.
“Clearly there needs to be a standard message across all wet wipe packaging and we are calling for mandatory ‘do not flush’ messaging to avoid the confusion consumers currently experience.”
Consumers responding to the survey said manufacturers of wet wipes should take responsibility for funding the development of plastic-free wipes (89 per cent), the clean-up of the environmental impact of wipes (73 per cent) and campaigns to encourage correct disposal (62 per cent).
Consumers also said Governments, water companies and retailers should also bear some responsibility.
Ben added: “We are also calling on the Government to extend the responsibility to manufacturers to cover cost of educating customers about correct methods of disposal, and clean-up costs resulting from incorrect disposal.
“We continue to spend millions of pounds every year to resolve blockages caused by wet wipes and sanitary items, as well as running
public awareness campaigns on the correct way to dispose.
“We have seen some retailers begin to act on this issue, banning all plastic-containing wipes, and we would urge others to do the same.”