Yorkshire Water reckons ‘millions’ is spent by staff clearing drain blockages each year.
Bosses have now called for mandatory ‘do not flush’ labelling on wet wipes to curb the issue.
Wet wipes – particularly baby and toilet wipes – cause some of the worst blockages 👶
Such blockages can lead to restricted toilet use for customers, sewage escapes into properties and gardens and in some cases pollution in local watercourses.
Yorkshire Water said current labelling on the products leaves consumers confused over how to correctly dispose of them.
They said many consumers believe wipes without a ‘fine to flush’ label can be flushed, especially if they are labelled as ‘biodegradable' ♻️
Yet it warned that neither ‘biodegradable’ nor ‘fine to flush’ products break down in the sewer network and can cause significant issues.
Ben Roche, director of wastewater at Yorkshire Water, said:
🗣 'Consumers are currently faced with an array of different logos and claims on packets of wet wipes, 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.'
'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 when buying all types of wipes.’
A large proportion of the 11 billion wet wipes used in the UK every year still contain some form of plastic, according to the Marine Conservation Society.
Evidence also suggests they are the cause of more than nine in 10 blockages in UK sewers.
We mean look at this beast 🤢
Mr Roche 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.’
So, to avoid Vecna coming for you we suggest not to flush wipes.
The medieval bubonic plague was first recorded in the 14th century and was the start of a near 500-year-long wave of killer diseases termed the Second Plague Pandemic 🌍🪦 trib.al/KPrthgc
The Black Death killed millions, and was considered one of the largest infectious disease catastrophes in human history.
Yet despite years of research, the geographic and chronological origin of the disease remained a mystery 🧐 metro.co.uk/2020/07/06/wha…
The artefacts were unearthed in six sacrificial pits at the Sanxingdui archaeological site, near Chengdu, as reported by Chinese state media on Monday.
Since 2020, a joint team of archaeologists from Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute...
...Peking University, Sichuan University and other research institutions have been excavating the six pits at the site.
In the most recent excavation, archaeologists found 3,155 relics that were relatively intact, including more than 2,000 bronze artefacts and statues (!)
A TikTok user recently claimed he'd started building a ‘frog army’ in his back garden 🐸
But while filling your yard to the brim with adorable frogs may sound great in theory – in reality, it’s more harmful than you might think 👇 trib.al/z7RJQJU
The user in question - Thinfrog - estimates he's rescued 1.4 million tadpoles from ponds in his local area that have dried up, housing them in a paddling pool 😲
Since then, he's posted footage showing floods and floods of tiny frogs hopping around. tiktok.com/@thinfrog/vide…
🗣️🐸 ‘This is the biggest frog army ever, but I kind of regret this now because nobody can go in the garden,’ he said in one clip.
But it isn’t just his garden. The fleet of amphibians had started to spread to other peoples’ gardens too 😬
After beating Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April, Fury has repeatedly insisted he is now retired from top level boxing.
But in an interview on Tuesday, ‘The Gypsy King’ said he will return one day as long as the offer is right...
...with becoming undisputed heavyweight champion the remaining challenge in an illustrious career.
In the meantime, Fury is firmly on board with lucrative exhibition bouts having already held talks over a meeting with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.