So long, plastic wet wipes

Long the scourge of water companies for blocking pipes, a law was passed banning the sale of wet wipes made of plastic.

The new rules will come into force in 2027 and will bring England in line with the rest of the UK.

Plastic wipes don't biodegrade when flushed down the toilet, so when oil and grease congeal on them, they form so-called fatbergs, which water companies say cost them £200 million a year to clean up.

Most wipes sold in the UK are now made from non-plastic materials, but the government and water companies say they should not be labeled as “flushable” as they can still cause blockages.

Wet wipe manufacturers contacted by the BBC said their non-plastic “flushable” wipes had been rigorously tested and met all regulations.

Fatbergs can become huge if the clog is not cleared.

Just last month, a huge, smelly clump of wet wipes, grease and oil was removed from a drain in west London. It weighed as much as eight double-decker buses and took a team of specialists more than a month to break it down.

The wet wipes market has been growing steadily over the years. According to the government, in 2023 32 billion wipes were sold to UK consumers Of these, about 12 billion contained plastic. If they were all laid out evenly, there would be enough plastic to cover 2,200 football fields.

While they welcomed England's new legislation, water industry sources were also quick to point out its limitations.

UK companies will still be able to produce and export plastic wet wipes, and people will still be able to buy them from pharmacies, either in person (over the counter) or online. Businesses such as hotels will be allowed to purchase tissues without restrictions.

Medical profession successfully advocated for relief from the wet wipes banarguing that non-plastic wipes absorb too much detergent and disinfectant saturated in them, which could have potential implications for patient safety.

At the Minworth wastewater treatment plant in the Midlands, the scale of the current problem can be seen as well as felt.

Meanworth serves more than two million people across Birmingham and the Black Country and Severn Trent, who runs the site, says 10 tonnes of wet wipes a day come through here.

“It's a nightmare,” says Grant Mitchell, Severn Trent's debris manager, as we inspect the small mountain of tissues.

He had just shown us the place where the “unwashable substances” are filtered out of the wastewater. This is a disgusting thing. There are dead rats, a rubber duck and a huge wad of dirty napkins.

“Wet wipes are a problem because they don’t break down like toilet paper,” he says. “So they stay intact and collect with grease, oil and grease from kitchens, congeal and form a fatberg, which causes flooding.”

Also present in Meanworth is Emma Hardy, the Minister for Water and Floods.

“It will make a huge difference,” Emma Hardy, the minister for water and floods, said of the ban as we took shelter from the rain in Meanworth. “I think people may be underestimating the number of problems these wipes cause.”

While many brands claim that their wipes are “flushable” and environmentally friendly, it is questionable whether they can or should be thrown down the toilet.

Daniel Jolly explores how quickly these biodegradable wet wipes biodegrade. In a lab at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, we watch him model how toilet flushing affects wiping.

“This is not toilet paper,” he says as the napkin slowly disintegrates into fibers as he stirs the water in the tank. “Even though it’s the same basic materials, it’s built completely differently and much stronger.”

Jolly carried out tests on the banks of the River Yare to see how quickly plastic-free wipes decompose.

“It's likely a period of a few months to a year or two years, depending on the environmental conditions they're in,” he says.

“It's much slower than using toilet paper, which lasts weeks to months, but much better than plastic napkins, which can last hundreds, even thousands of years in certain situations.”

Government-commissioned research found that some non-plastic wipes failed tests on their rate of breakdown, meaning they could still block drains.

Jolly is now studying the impact biodegradable wipes have on aquatic life when they break down.

Until March 2024, water companies operated a certification scheme that gave the green light for the use of some wipes in the toilet, called “Fine to Flush”. But it was discontinued due to concerns it would cause confusion among consumers and replaced with the new slogan “Bin the Wipe”.

The advice from the government and water companies is now very clear. There are only three Ps you should throw down the toilet – urine, paper and poop.

“Restricting the sale of wet wipes containing plastic is a step in the right direction,” said a spokesman for Water UK, the industry trade body. “But what we really need is a ban on their production and mandatory 'do not flush' labeling on all wet wipes.”

Some manufacturers selling “flushable” wipes told the BBC they are in fact wet toilet wipes, but Water UK said it still treats them as wet wipes and is therefore not flushable.

“I would encourage them [the wet wipe manufacturers] to show leadership on this issue now,” says Minister Hardy.

“Instead of advertising them as flushable, provide labeling to inform the public that they need to throw them in the bin rather than flush them down the toilet.”

Additional reporting by Gwyndaf Hughes