Thanks for highlighting, Juliet. I don’t put anything other than human waste and some untreated loo paper down the drain. We used to,live on a farm with a bio-muncher which struggled to cope with even loo roll, sometimes. One set of neighbours were forever blocking the system with wet wipes. I think it’s the ‘out of sight is out of mind’ mentality. People just don’t think about where it goes. I like the phrase ‘there is no away’ - everything we get rid of goes somewhere….
Some say they’re ’disposable’ or ‘biodegradable’ I think they should just carry a warning to say not to flush them! We have lots of non mains drainage systems here!
I hope for the UK rivers that more sign on. Here in the States, our sewage systems are overwhelmed by the wet wipes. When tree roots cracked the lid on my septic tank and then clogged the pipe, the company who came to repair it had to completely clean out the tank. Placed there in the 50's it had a layer of rags (diapers maybe?) cemented at the bottom. I have lived here for 40 yrs and knew better than to flush anything but TP. The house had been a rental before we bought it. Still the cost of hooking up to the sewer was massive. When I researched it all, my decision to keep the septic tank was not only economical but environmentally sounder than the only other option, the dread sewer. I feel I have a cleaner solution as the tank is only cleaned once every few years and disposed directly at the sewage facility bypassing miles of pipeline that get clogged, broken, compromised. Two years ago, the city did a massive redo of the sewer line out front of my home and down the street to the east. They had to use larger pipes due to suburban growth. The same in the town to the south. My compact little system is working fine, filtering down the west side of my little acre unimpeded. I feel quite smug at moments feeling that I am not contributing daily to the already strained system of sewers and paying monthly for its upkeep. Still, I hope in the not-too-distant future that we humans can find a cleaner smarter way to take care of our massive amount of waste.
As for rivers, I grew up not far from the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. I remember when it caught on fire! Not long ago looking at housing online for my hopeful move back to my home state, there was a darling cottage on that very same river. It has come a long way!
We definitely need to find cleaner smarter ways of dealing with waste, plus too many sewer systems need to be upgraded, even if they're to continue to operate at the level they currently operate at
Thanks for highlighting, Juliet. I don’t put anything other than human waste and some untreated loo paper down the drain. We used to,live on a farm with a bio-muncher which struggled to cope with even loo roll, sometimes. One set of neighbours were forever blocking the system with wet wipes. I think it’s the ‘out of sight is out of mind’ mentality. People just don’t think about where it goes. I like the phrase ‘there is no away’ - everything we get rid of goes somewhere….
Wet wipes are just horrible things, as so many people think they can just be flushed away when they can't.
Some say they’re ’disposable’ or ‘biodegradable’ I think they should just carry a warning to say not to flush them! We have lots of non mains drainage systems here!
I agree, it should state clearly on the packaging that they shouldn't be flushed
I hope for the UK rivers that more sign on. Here in the States, our sewage systems are overwhelmed by the wet wipes. When tree roots cracked the lid on my septic tank and then clogged the pipe, the company who came to repair it had to completely clean out the tank. Placed there in the 50's it had a layer of rags (diapers maybe?) cemented at the bottom. I have lived here for 40 yrs and knew better than to flush anything but TP. The house had been a rental before we bought it. Still the cost of hooking up to the sewer was massive. When I researched it all, my decision to keep the septic tank was not only economical but environmentally sounder than the only other option, the dread sewer. I feel I have a cleaner solution as the tank is only cleaned once every few years and disposed directly at the sewage facility bypassing miles of pipeline that get clogged, broken, compromised. Two years ago, the city did a massive redo of the sewer line out front of my home and down the street to the east. They had to use larger pipes due to suburban growth. The same in the town to the south. My compact little system is working fine, filtering down the west side of my little acre unimpeded. I feel quite smug at moments feeling that I am not contributing daily to the already strained system of sewers and paying monthly for its upkeep. Still, I hope in the not-too-distant future that we humans can find a cleaner smarter way to take care of our massive amount of waste.
As for rivers, I grew up not far from the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. I remember when it caught on fire! Not long ago looking at housing online for my hopeful move back to my home state, there was a darling cottage on that very same river. It has come a long way!
We definitely need to find cleaner smarter ways of dealing with waste, plus too many sewer systems need to be upgraded, even if they're to continue to operate at the level they currently operate at
Thanks for raising this important issue and good to learn about Unblocktober. I hadn't heard of that before.