Join the fight against the unflushables and help protect our sewers, seas and beaches.
Unflushables like wipes, sanitary towels, tampons and cotton buds typically contain plastic so they don’t disintegrate like toilet paper. Flush them and once they reach the sea they stick around for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time.
Worse still, plastics in the sea are now entering the food chain. That’s bad news for humanfolk everywhere.
Watch the film (1:37)
The 2017 Great British Beach Clean weekend found over 18,050 unflushable items littering our beaches, including cotton bud sticks, wet wipes and sanitary towels. An average of around 27 wet wipes were found for every 100 metres of coastline, an increase of 94% since last year. These washed up wipes can be mistaken for food by all sorts of precious marine life. Which is totally not cool.
Even wet wipes labelled as ‘flushable’ can still block pipes and increase pollution in our seas and beaches.
If you pour leftover fat, grease or oil down the sink, it cools and turns hard. It then teams up with other yucky flushed stuff like wet wipes to make giant fatbergs. Some as big as a double decker bus. These fatbergs clog up pipes and stop sewage getting to where it needs to be treated. When it rains, there’s nowhere for it to go – meaning it could flood your house and garden and overflow into our rivers and seas (not to mention making beaches stink too).
The drains that flow from our houses are the size of a teacup. It only takes a few wipes to clog them up and cause nasty pongs in your home and a pricey plumber’s bill to fix them. The average cost to clear a blockage is £66 but it can be as much as £240.
UK water companies spend over £88 million on nearly 400,000 blockages each year, up to 80% of which are caused by wet wipes and their unflushable buddies like cotton buds and nappies. This leads to more expensive water bills for everyone.
Make the three Ps your new bathroom mantra. Keep a bin by your toilet and share our message with your friends, colleagues – even your pet tortoise. Together we can take on the wet wipe monsters and keep our homes and coastlines safe.
Always pour leftover cooled fat and oil into a container before popping it in the bin. Wipe greasy pans and pots with kitchen roll before washing up too. It all helps to keep the fatbergs at bay.
Help us rid our sewers of fatbergs and protect our seas and beaches from the monstrous unflushables. From this day forward, pledge to only flush the 3Ps and never ever ever pour fat, oil or grease down the sink or drain. Now share this site with your buddies and together we can stop the unflushables before it’s too late.
