Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/762480
www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | JANUARY 2017 | 13 quiet as a water industry on this but now we are being quite vocal, because of the problems they are causing." There are usually at least four companies that make up the supply chain of these products – the manufacturer of the fibres, the company that makes this into the base sheet, the main manufacturer which adds chemicals to the wipe and the retailer – with each keen to preserve their own financial interest, so change cannot happen overnight. However, Dyson said that there are signs that retailers are "stepping up" and insisting that wipes made under their own brand meet the wastewater industry testing guidelines, which should drive improvements further back in the supply chain. With multinational companies behind the manufacture of wet wipes it is likely that any solution needs to be cross-border. However, with the UK government currently consulting on a possible ban on microbeads in cosmetics – because of their effect on aquatic environments downstream - there is chance that the specific issue of microplastics in wipes could be tacked through that route, says Dyson. "There is a list of products that the government are going to look at in the second part of that consultation, but at the moment wet wipes aren't in there," she says. "The water industry and other environmental groups are lobbying to make sure that wipes are in that second part of the consultation. Not all wipes contain microplastics, but certainly baby wipes and ordinary wipes that are not designed to be flushed contain an element of microplastics, fine hairlike structures that hold the wipe together. Manufacturers aren't all saying if their product does contain microplastic, and it may be that they don't know because they are not involved in making the base product – we are trying to get them to be responsible and talk to their suppliers on this." The wet wipes problem Anglian Water fixes 30,000 blockages in its sewer network each year – that's one every fi een minutes. Most of these are caused by the build-up of fats, oil and grease in combination with sanitary waste and wet wipes, a mixture which can form so-called 'fatbergs'. Anglian estimates that it spends £7M a year clearing 'avoidable' blockages, which can be attributed to unhelpful customer behaviour. 70% of sewer flooding is also caused by this type of sewer blockage. Manufacturers of wet wipes follow their own guidelines (GB3) on the extent to which wet wipes disintegrate and biodegrade. However, the UK water industry has a different set of testing guidelines which it says should be met for a wipe to count as 'flushable'. Efforts to agree an ISO standard which both manufacturers and water companies would be happy with have so far failed. Anglian has 44,500 restaurants and other food premises in its region, which are a current focus for reducing fats, oil and grease (FOG) in the network. In common with other water companies, Anglian is proactively visiting food outlets to give them advice on appropriate FOG management. Rachel Dyson chairs Water UK's Sewer Network Abuse Prevention (SNAP) group which aims to co-ordinate industry response to these issues; she also leads Anglian's 'Keep it Clear' campaign. Customer education But while rows with manufacturers might make headlines, the greater volume of water company work on preventing sewer blockages is focused on customer education. Anglian's 'Keep it Clear' campaign has been running since 2010 and is one of the many industry initiatives aiming to get customers on side in preventing blockages. As well as the usual channels such as leaflets, regional and social media and school visits, Anglian has been targeting what it calls 'local influencers' to promote word-of-mouth in a particular locality or amongst a particular demographic. Anglian has based its actions in the campaign on research into customer behaviour which revealed how cultural differences, hygiene concerns and simple ignorance affect what customers flush down their toilets and wash down their sinks. "The research showed that what is key to a lot of social marketing tactics is that you go with a message that comes to you from a local trusted voice," says Dyson. "So we tailor our materials and interventions according to what that group or that demographic told us. That has evolved over the years and we've targeted blockage hotspot areas to get our comms out there, using influencers in the local community. If you are a converted flusher, you are the best person to be preaching the evils of it." The tactics are working. In the 23 areas that have been targeted by the Keep it Clear campaign in the last year, blockages are down by 39%, compared to 14% in other areas which did not receive this extra attention. FOG from commercial kitchens A newer focus has been efforts to tackle fats, oil and grease (FOG) coming from restaurants and other food premises. This is a particular problem in urban areas where there might be a