MP’s crusade for ban on plastic wet wipes

A LABOUR MP has called for a total ban on the manufacture and sale of wet wipes containing plastic.

Fleur Anderson warned the menace is costing the UK around £100million a year – with much of the cost passed on to household bills.

MPs also heard marine animals are dying as ‘wet wipe islands’ in rivers such as the Thames are appearing. Such mounds of wipes are altering the rivers’ shape, she warned.

Miss Anderson’s Plastics (Wet Wipes) Bill to prohibit the manufacture and sale of wet wipes containing plastic had its first reading in the Commons yesterday

Putney MP Miss Anderson said: ‘As a mother of four children, I have used a lot of wet wipes and I completely understand the pressures that parents are under and how useful wet wipes are. I know that parents also want to do the right thing for the environment.’

But she said 90 per cent of the 11billion wet wipes used in the UK each year contain some form of plastic which, when broken down, turn into microplastics which can be ingested by wildlife and enter the food chain and water supply.

She said the problem was growing, with the Great British Beach Clean reportedly seeing an increase from 1.7 wet wipes per average 100m of beach to 18 wet wipes between 2005 and 2020.

She added: ‘When these plastics enter our local marine environment and water systems in such large volumes the damage is absolutely devastating. Globally, a hundred million animals die each year from plastic waste alone.’

The MP added wet wipes are the cause of 93 per cent of blockages in UK sewers. Miss Anderson said: ‘Every year water companies spend £100million dealing with the 300,000 sewer blockages – money that is then added to consumer bills, to our bills. This is costing us as well as the environment.’

She said a ‘greater scale of production’ of plastic-free wipes could be encouraged by the ban, making the alternative cheaper.

The Daily Mail has long raised awareness of plastic pollution with the Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign. The Plastics (Wet Wipes) Bill will be considered again on Friday November 19. As a Private Members’ Bill, it is unlikely to become law without Government support, although Downing Street has signalled it is committed to ending ‘the throwaway culture’.

A No10 spokesman said the 25year Environment Plan sets out ‘a commitment to eliminate avoidable plastic waste’.