Thousands of soiled wet wipes envelop this steel grill covering the outlet of a combined sewer overflow (CSO) on the River Tame near Stockport in Cheshire. The wet wipes were washed through the sewers during heavy rainfall and flooding at the beginning of August 2019. Wet wipes are a key source of river pollution directly linked to how we dispose of waste in our homes. This image shows only those that were trapped on the CSO grill—many thousands more were washed directly into the river.
Wet wipes flushed into the sewer network pose multiple technical and environmental problems:
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
