19th September 2023
Banning plastic-based wet wipes
SOUTH West Water (SWW) is supporting moves by Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey to ban plastic-based wet wipes in a bid to tackle water pollution.
If successful, following a consultation as part of a wider plan to improve water quality in England, the ban could come into effect next year.
SWW says that around 93 per cent of all sewer blockages are caused by wet wipes being flushed down toilets, and these cost around £100-million a year to clear up.
Wet wipes, when combined with fat and oil that has been poured down sinks, can cause blockages and could even lead to homes and gardens being flooded with sewage.
In extreme cases, it can create the phenomenon known as fatbergs, as seen by South West Water in Sidmouth in 2019 when workers spent eight weeks breaking up 64 metres of congealed fat, oil and wet wipes.
And in 2021, a team of four people worked for 34 days on removing 88 tonnes of debris from a 50-metre fatberg in Plymouth, the same length as the height of the Arc de Triomphe.
South West Water serves around two million customers across Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Devon, and says that each year it removes around 450 tonnes of ‘unflushables’ such as wet wipes, sanitary products and cotton pads from its pumping stations.
That’s the equivalent of 73 million wet wipes and would be enough to fill 30 double decker buses.
Said Alan Burrows, South West Water’s director of environmental liaison and culture: “We currently find 8,500 blocked sewers a year, which costs us about £4.5-million to clear and adds to our customers’ bills.
“These blockages are mostly caused by ‘unflushable’ items which do not beak down in the sewer and cause flooding.
“This can be easily avoided by keeping wet wipes out of our network, which is why we are supporting the Government’s plans to ban plastic-based wipes.
“We work hard to help our customers and we continue to actively encourage everyone to only flush pee, paper and poo down the loo.”