The team involved in Northumbrian Water’s award-winning ‘Bin The Wipe’ have now pulled one tonne of wipes out the North East sewer network which equates to over 200,000 unflushable wipes.
The milestone comes three years after the project was launched in 2020 when it was found that 64% of the 15,600 sewer blockages cleared in the North East were caused by wet wipes. At the time of the launch, an ambitious target of reducing blockages by 40% was set. The results show this target is being exceeded year on year in the ‘hot spot’ areas. Most recently, teams working in North Tyneside saw a 79% reduction in wipes in the hotspot areas and in Washington a 77% reduction was achieved when intervention work was carried out.
The primary purpose of ‘Bin The Wipe’ is to stop ‘unflushables’ – the most common of which is wipes – being incorrectly disposed of down the toilet and ending up in the sewer network, where they cause blockages. These blockages lead to sewer flooding, which can have devastating impacts for customers’ homes and the environment.
The ‘Bin the Wipe’ team are out and about across the region every day, carrying out investigations into blockages in ‘hot spot areas’ where wipes are causing huge issues. To help identify where the wipes are coming from the Sewerage Maintenance Operatives use innovative tools created to capture wipes within different sewer pipe sizes and depths. These tools are lowered into manholes and re-visited each day to monitor the number of wipes which are found. The positioning of the wipes on the tools shows the direction the wipes are flowing from.
By following each pipe in this way, the team can narrow the wipes down to a street and eventually the individual household/s who are flushing wipes. With the team manually collecting this data, they can also have face-to-face conversations with our customers about ‘Bin the Wipe’, educating them about the damage wipes are causing.
Since the launch, the teams have reached over 433,000 households, and following a visit, the number of wipes in the network have reduced in the ‘hot spot’ areas by up to 91%. This reduces the chance, and cost of flooding into customers’ homes, as well as having positive impacts on the local environment.
Simon Cyhanko, Head of Wastewater Networks at Northumbrian Water said:
“We knew we could have a big impact with this project, but to pull out a tonne’s worth of wet wipes is a milestone for us.
“It shows the dedication and professionalism of our Sewerage Maintenance Operatives who are working tirelessly day in and day out to clear our network. By helping people to understand the problems caused by flushing wipes, and the potentially awful consequences, it really opens people’s eyes and inspires change. All we ask is that people stop using their toilet as a bin.
“‘Bin the Wipe’ has helped convert thousands of flushers who have joined the thousands of customers who never flushed wipes in the first place, and we thank them all for their good flushing habits.”
The success of the project has meant awards and accolades but it is the support it has generated from customers, regulators, and stakeholders, including members of parliament, which has led to it being adopted by the water and wastewater industry, and the industry body, WaterUK. This has resulted in a national ‘Bin the Wipe campaign’ which was launched in 2023.
