Water companies across the UK have come together for national campaign ‘Bin the Wipe’, urging the public to stop flushing wet wipes to help protect the environment and avoid flooding in homes and businesses.
It comes as new research revealed that 22% of people in the UK flush wet wipes down the toilet despite 88% of them knowing that it can harm the environment.
Of those who admitted to flushing wet wipes, 89% said that protecting the environment was an important issue to them, with 91% wanting to protect animals and 87% wanting to stop pollution in rivers and seas.
Spearheaded by Water UK, Bin the Wipe looks to stop people flushing wet wipes, which are known to cause major pollution in our seas and rivers, especially when fibres become trapped inside animals, leading to starvation and ultimately death.
Not only this but 75% of drain blockages are caused by people flushing wet wipes down the toilet, contributing to the 300,000 sewer blockages each year that cost the country £100 million.
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Water UK director of campaigns Peter Jenkins said: “Today’s research has revealed that an alarming number of people continue to flush wet wipes down their loo, even when they know the detrimental effect this can have on issues they care about, such as the environment”.
“Our national Bin the Wipe campaign aims to encourage people to break the habit of flushing wet wipes down the toilet. By binning wet wipes instead, you can safeguard against blockages in pipes or even flooding in your home, while also helping to protect the environment.”
Northumbrian Water chief executive Heidi Mottram added: “Bin the Wipe is a really important message and asks for such a really simple change to people’s habits. It’s so easy to do and makes a massive difference”.
“Since we started asking our customers across the North East to Bin the Wipe at the start of 2020, we have seen blockages reduced by 52% and a 64% decrease in home flooding incidents in the areas where we have taken our campaign.”
The Bin the Wipe campaign was previewed at a recent parliamentary event hosted by Putney, Roehampton and Southfields MP Fleur Anderson, whose Private Members’ Bill is calling for plastic to be removed from wet wipes.
Anderson said: “This is the first time all the water companies have come together to raise awareness of this really important environmental issue”.
“I know that millions of people don’t currently know about the damage that is done by flushing wet wipes, and I’ve been campaigning for years to ban plastic in wet wipes as well as highlight the need to bin, never flush.”
