The wet wipes warning parents need to know
Louisa Sherlock
Contributing EditorNearly a third of us flush them down the loo …
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A shocking photo showing the end result of flushing the wrong things down the loo has been revealed … and it’s enough to put you off your dinner.
Thames Water shared the picture on Facebook this week of an enormous ‘fatberg’ pulled out of a blocked drain. The huge mass is a mixture of wet wipes, fat oils and greases.
From nappy changes to wiping your child’s sticky hands and face, it’s no surprise that in the UK we use 11 billion wipes a year.
And while many of us pop used wipes in the bin, the photo is a shocking reminder for anyone who doesn’t.
But wipes are not the only thing being flushed away …
Research by Thames Water earlier this year also found just under one in eight of us flush NAPPIES down the toilet while 1.4million sanitary pads are flushed every day. Ewww.
Anna Boyles, Thames Water operations manager, said:
‘We know many busy people love the convenience of these products, but most are made from plastic and take hundreds of years to break down.
‘Not only can these products block your toilets, but they also clump together with cooking fat in the sewers to form fatbergs. These blockages can force sewage to back up into your home, through manhole covers in gardens, streets and open spaces, and into rivers and seas.
‘The only way you can be sure you are not contributing to plastic and sewage pollution is to bin products like nappies, sanitary pads, tampons and wet wipes.’
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