Every one of us can take steps in our daily lives to reduce pressure on the UK’ s embattled sewage system. Kerry MacKay explains how
ENVIRONMENT
Unblocktober
Every one of us can take steps in our daily lives to reduce pressure on the UK’ s embattled sewage system. Kerry MacKay explains how
Have you ever abandoned dive plans due to sewage? Or maybe you got ill after a dive in contaminated water. It could happen to any of us.
After years of neglect, our water systems suffer scandalous levels of sewage pollution. I’ m sure we agree that water companies shouldn’ t be allowed to get away with this behaviour. However, we all play a part in caring for our sewage systems.
Blocked sewers and drains cause pollution, damage to buildings and roads, hefty bills for property owners, and frustrating roadworks. A chunk of our tax money also goes towards clearing these blockages. Unblocktober is a national campaign, first launched in 2019, aiming to improve the health of our drains, sewers, watercourses and seas.
It’ s estimated that there are over 300,000 sewer blockages every year across the UK. Do you remember when the Fatberg hit the headlines? The Fatberg disgustingly displayed how incorrect disposal of items down the toilet or drain causes blockages.
In fact, 80 % of blockages are caused by something that should never have been put into the sewage system. In one survey, 48 % of the British public said they have flushed wet wipes, and 48 % pour fats, oils and grease down their drains! It is also estimated that 1.8 billion cotton buds get flushed down our toilets each year.
Even if the things we flush don’ t cause a blockage, they can still enter our seas when sewers overflow due to heavy rainfall or insufficient capacity. As we move into autumn with its predictable rain, we can expect even more sewage spills, risking our dive plans being spoiled.
There’ s a good reason why wet wipes are talked about so much when talking about what we flush. In the UK, a staggering 11 billion wet wipes are used annually. They also contribute to 93 % of sewer blockages in the UK!
Wet wipes are one of the most common sewage-related litter items you will find on our beaches. I certainly find plenty of them in my work doing beach cleans with schools. In 2023, over 21,000 wet wipes
were recorded by Beachwatch volunteers on UK beaches.
Once a wet wipe enters our sewage system, it combines with other stuff like grease and hair to create a disgusting blockage. Until that blockage is found and cleaned out, it causes sewage overflows. These overflows include anything people have flushed, leading to some hotspots where thousands of wet wipes washing up on a single beach!
Many wet wipes also contain plastic. This is not something we want to be pouring into the environment. Any wet wipes or other plastic-containing products that get flushed( such as period products or dental floss) will eventually break down into microplastics, which are damaging the environment.
Digging out a sewage fatball
The Marine Conservation Society has been campaigning for a ban on wet wipes containing plastic for over a decade. It is in part thanks to the beach litter data collected by UK Beachwatch volunteers that it was announced in April 2024 that all governments across the UK will ban the supply and sale of single-use wet wipes containing plastic. Each nation will introduce regulations separately. There will be an 18-month transition period for the industry to adapt. As of July 2025, we were still waiting for all UK nations to instigate this groundbreaking law.
Fortunately, plastic-free wet wipes are already available, or you could use a bidet( cheap travel versions are ideal), to avoid any single-use waste. The best advice of all, only flush the three Ps down the loo- pee, poo and paper! �
PHOTO: WATER UK
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