Bungalow Sized Fatberg

[tiggerblue10]

How do you stop millions of people chucking non-biodegradable crap down the sink and toilet?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56124639

[Atheist]

Perhaps if they ate real food, their crap wouldn't be non-biodegradable.
Wet wipes - No!
Nappies -No!
Plastic bottie scrapers - No!
Fat from their meat roasts - No! (But what do you do with fat? They do the usual - pour it down the sink without a thought.) Mind you, it's probably the commercial culprits that do the most harm - maybe it takes time to get through the system, and by autumn there might be an improvement.

[burlyshirley]

I don't think we ever will. It's laziness.

[fender62]

it;s always someone else's problem or err keeps them in jobs.
fat from roasts...blimey that's gravy, we had dripping on toast.

[Peter Pedant]

do you mind m e picking and pointing out that fat is biodegradable ?
it is a lipid and lipases do it

[Prudie]

This is heartbreaking but re-educating people is almost a lost cause. It would help for starters if these items were banned - non-biodegradable wipes and cotton buds made with plastic.

[Atheist]

Yes, Peter, but in the meantime they do build up and block the sewers. This is a practical problem, not an amusing scientific test.

[fender62]

Peter Pedant, nowt wasted in our old home with mum and dad, no plastic food, art of making due is lost sadly,

[Peter Pedant]

or in the escape scene from the end of Les Mizz - 1862
frooda sewers of Paree - Jean Val Jean finds the same thing?

actually he finds collapsed portions of the old sewers(*) so that when he is carrying his ungrateful son in law to safety he goes goop
But he is Jean Valjean so he dont give up ! an zee ungrateful son in law chucks him out of the bouse in the final chapter

(*) of gay paree that is ! ( c'est a dire!)

Yeah yeah or no ! no! it aint in the musical but cd be ! and they cd sing Mud glorious mud ! ( but dont )

[Peter Pedant]

poo as a serious subject
sozza boys and gurlz

[Atheist]

Actually, Peter, it isn't the poo that's the problem.

[Mamyalynne]

If he found disposable nappies and wet wipes down there Peter I'd be very surprised.


Perhaps what we need are toilets that spit back what shouldn't be flushed - that would make folk think twice.

[Peter Pedant]

blimey would certainly stop them flushing whilst sitting on the pan
er seriously ( since this is um a serious thread) you would need ceramic tiled ceilings innit?

and a few cushions in case one hit ones head whilst ..... o never mind

[Peter Pedant]

actually my neighbour blocked the sewer out the back on my property with wipes and er girlie stuff

so .... it backed up and I had some very odd er leaf mulch coming out of one of the drains. The landlord of the adjoining prop shared the cost of hiring someone to blow a jet down the pipe. (£80 with call out) and it kinda persuaded me I cdnt do this as a living. Because HER bog was doing the "I dont flsuh/clear " thing

just thought I should share a serious expense wiv ya all
on this serious theme

( wash hands ++ and short fingernails)

[fender62]

Peter Pedant, you could have saved money and rodded it, spent a few yrs doing drains as a side job, i be blunt.. if it looks erm settled lumpy
you can get a garden hose and water it down, and get them rods out with the plunger on the end..aim for the hole at the bottom at push..that rod..pull back slowly as you will get splash backs, repeat and you will suprised it will flow forward.

[gingejbee]

...and if the blockage is in shared drains, it's the water companies responsibility now. No cost to the owners.
(Water industry, Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers, Regulations 2011).

[KARL]

A former neighbour of mine had her first baby, then moved out when the baby was approaching three years old. Next resident, one child of 10 or so, quickly found the toilet stopped draining one day. A major operation eventually cleared a very large knot/ball/bundle of wet wipes. The former resident and typically absurdly proud mother is a physician/doctor.

[andy-hughes]

The difficulty is, no-one equates the results of what they do with the final effect.

If one hundred thousand people flush one nappy down one toilet once a week, individually they can imagine that it will have no effect, because we have an efficient modern sewage system.

The problem occurs with the build-up of that massive amount of wastage, combined with all the other wastage, and again, people do not think ahead to the consequences, because human nature is not to bother with such notions.

Education is the answer.

But since we haven't yet managed to educate any generation that excess drugs and alcohol, and speeding in a car, and being bigoted against strangers, and carrying knives, and so on and so on ... are all wrong, and all carry far more lasting and devastating consequences, what chance do we have of educating people not to drop a wet wipe down a loo?

Not much!

[alavahalf]

LOL at Fender .. he to has shared the path that most fear to tread.
Try explaining the sense of satisfaction you get when you are faced with a 2mtr deep chamber, full of ..S h one t.. and it disappears in in less than 5 seconds after a rodding ! .. Respect where it's due !
Everyone should have to stand and see it done, then perhaps they wouldn't ever put a wet wipe down a toilet again ?

[andy-hughes]

alav - // Everyone should have to stand and see it done, then perhaps they wouldn't ever put a wet wipe down a toilet again ? //

Yes they would, because thoughtless convenience trumps social conscience in five seconds flat.

As pointed out, a doctor, who in a professional situation would no more drop a wipe or nappy down a toilet than fly to the moon, thinks nothing of doing so at home - the distinction is drawn, the common effect is conveniently forgotten.

Human nature is a seriously powerful influence, it takes some overcoming.

[alavahalf]

It really boils down to .. 'Out of sight .. Out of mind' ..?