Wet wipes containing plastic are finally set to be banned across the UK as ministers warn a ‘step change’ is needed to protect the country’s rivers.

The long-awaited announcement comes after a campaign against the products which have been blamed for hundreds of thousands of blockages in the UK sewer system costing millions of pounds a year.

Manufacturers have also come under fire discarded wipes increasingly littering Britain’s beaches.

Under plans to be set out by the environment secretary Steve Barclay it will become illegal to sell or supply wet wipes which contain plastic.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝A
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    7 months ago

    It is usually passed through a mesh at sewage plants but that isn’t going to stop fatbergs and other blockages before then. It’s just simpler to make sure “flushable” wipes actually are flushable.

    • wewbull
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Those are called “toilet paper”.

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝A
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        Toilet? Paper? It’s a novel concept (when he was a Uni, my brother used to use cut up pages from the Thomson Local Directory, so I suppose it is something like that) but I doubt it’d catch on.

        • wewbull
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          Well… No Thompson directory anymore. So that explains that.