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.
How about stopping corporations dumping sewage in them? That’d be a good start…
But how are they going to generate profits?
You don’t think having functioning sewers may help with the problem?
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, as per usual when it comes to environmental policies
This would be less of a problem if the sewage actually got filtered
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.
Those are called “toilet paper”.
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.
Well… No Thompson directory anymore. So that explains that.
I actually thought everyone knew that you shouldn’t flush wipes down the toilet. Ours are always disposed of in the household waste
Nope, and it doesn’t help that many brands are marked as “flushable”.
The advertising authorities should have knocked that nonsense on the head years ago. I was explaining it to someone the other week and they were surprised to find out that “flushable” wipes aren’t.
It’s a perfect example of how lobbying and misinformation can be so difficult to overcome. The impact of ‘flushable’ wipes is known and significant yet rules aren’t put in place to stop it. I wonder why…
The Costco ones I have are apparently “plant based” and “suitable for a well maintained sewage system”, which is a shame because it almost certainly isn’t.
Still, I’m not paying the best part of £700 a year to put bits of my own poo in the bin.
wet wipes need to just be banned. all they do is clog sewers
They are the only practical solution for changing a baby. If legislation is introduced that means they have to be biodegradable, it’s a massive step in the right direction.
We used to use re-usable cloth wipes for a while with our first. They were OK but honestly wet wipes were so much more convenient, in that they seemed to do a better job of cleaning and also you don’t have to faff about storing them and washing them etc.
We used cloth wipes for both of ours. It’s possible if you have the motivation. Something like this to hold the wipes and keep them moist:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Storage-Dispenser-Holder-Toilet-Container/dp/B09VXTS3JK
Been using cotton wool pads so far but baby is tiny, so might not work forever…
Renationalise water.
Fuck the shareholders. It’s because of them that there’s been inadequate improvements to sewage works over the last 35 years.
These motherfuckers. These fucking ghouls. They’ve changed the law to allow corporations to pump as much shit into our rivers and seas as they can, resulting in people, children, getting sick. Resulting in scenes where there is a turbid, bubbling brown froth OF HUMAN SHIT on the surface of the sea where people are bathing.
They’ve destroyed our waterways so quickly it’s almost impressive.
And now, to “help our rivers”, the rivers these cunts have destroyed, remember, they are going to blame normal people for flushing shitty wet wipes down the bog. How many million tonnes of shitty wet wipes per year do the sewage plants have to deal with? How many tonnes of human and animal faeces are pumped out into our waterways? If you want to help our rivers, STOP LETTING YOUR RICH MATES PUMP EXCREMENT INTO OUR RIVERS
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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.
He said: "Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, kill wildlife and lead to sewage backing up into people’s homes.
Labour also accused the Tories of a lengthy delay after the party first promised to ban wet wipes in 2018, as part of a wider crackdown on plastics.
Some businesses such as Boots, Aldi and Tesco have already moved to ban wet wipes containing plastics from their stores.
The original article contains 394 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Good! Fuck plastic! I’m so cynical about this government now though that I think it’s because the blockages are hurting their shareholder bros.
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