What's the problem?
The toilet and sewerage system is designed to deal with urine, faeces and toilet tissue. If you flush other 'personal' items such as sanitary products and cotton buds down the toilet, this can easily lead to blockages in the pipes and can cause flooding. Such 'personal waste' is known as Sanitary Related Debris (SRD).
But that is not the only problem that may occur.
When the waste eventually gets to the sewage treatment plant it can block the filter screens.
If there is heavy rainfall, the waste may escape from overflow pipes directly into the river and sea.
The scale of the damage
Children, bathers and other beach users regularly come across this waste and other used debris. To a child, the potential dangers of a condom, syringe needle or used sanitary towel are not always obvious.
An estimated 2 billion sanitary protection items such as condoms, tampons, razors and cotton buds are flushed down British toilets each year.
- Three-quarters of sewer blockages are caused by people putting items they shouldn't down toilets or drains, and half of sewer flooding incidents are caused by these blockages.*
Our sewers were not designed for this sort of waste and despite the efforts of the water industry to remove these products from the system, they can either cause severe blockages and flooding or escape the system and end up on beaches, riverbanks and canal sides.
The 2008 Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch Campaign collected more than 385,000 items of waste in one weekend in September, including Sanitary Related Debris.
- According to the Beachwatch survey, in 2008 Sewage Related Debris accounted for 6.2% of the total waste collected on British beaches – an average of 136 items per kilometre of coastline.
The impact of Sewage Related Debris (SRD)
Personal products that are flushed down the toilet can end up on British beaches and riverbanks and pose a health risk to humans and wildlife. It also looks horrid. Would you like to walk down the beach and see a condom in the seaweed or find a tampon applicator in a rock pool?
Wildlife can also suffer greatly. Marine animals often mistake plastic materials for food. Turtles have been found to have a wide variety of plastics inside them.
- Seabirds have been found with condoms in their stomachs and have been seen trying to feed small pieces of plastic to their chicks.
SRD such as tampons can also be mistaken for nesting material.
The long-term effects of plastics on marine wildlife is not yet known, but the health risks from used sanitary products, razor blades, out-of-date medicines, used condoms, dirty needles and the like cannot be underestimated.
The visual impact of this litter on the environment is also significant. An ENCAMS study found that SRD was one of the biggest causes of offence to beach visitors. It has been estimated that local authorities spend up to £14 billion cleaning up beach rubbish every year.
Bag It & Bin It
Disposable products are an everyday part of life. They are easy and convenient to use and easy and convenient to dispose of. But you should not flush them away.
Waste sanitary and pharmaceutical items should, for health reasons, first be placed in bags before being put in the bin.
Be part of the solution. Follow the simple disposal code: Don't Flush It… Bag It & Bin It
*
About the campaign
The sewerage process
Bag It & Bin It home
Campaign logoBag It & Bin It logos are available here. Please feel free to use these to create your own signs or posters.
