Derbyshire residents urged not to flush wet wipes down the toilet as disgusting pictures emerge
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The reminder follows a recent increase in blockages caused by wipes across the region.
Severn Trent’s sewer blockages lead, Grant Mitchell, said: “These blockages are all the result of people flushing one wipe here and there, and not realising that they are collecting in the pipe and creating a big problem.
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Hide Ad“Blockages of this size can easily cause sewer flooding, which would be awful to experience and can be devastating for homes, businesses and the environment.
“Many people also don’t realise that a lot of wet wipes, even the ones that are labelled as ‘flushable’, contain plastic, which means that they don't break down in the sewers in the same way that toilet paper does.
“Certain brands of toilet wipes have started to sell a new product, which is actually more of a moist toilet tissue – they don’t contain plastic and are safe to flush down the toilet, as they will break down in the sewer.
“These wipes carry the Fine to Flush symbol on their packaging, which means they have been stringently tested by independent technical experts to ensure they’re safe to flush.
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Hide Ad“We recommend that customers look out for these wipes as they are less likely to cause a blockage if they get dropped down the loo.”
Mr Mitchell added: “If everyone kept a bin in their bathroom and binned their wipes, or only flushed wipes which meet the Fine to Flush standard, we could easily prevent the majority of these blockages from occurring.”