A revolting mass of wet wipes have been published after being removed from a sewer in a message for people not to flush them down the toilet.
The disgusting images that were removed from a Hull sewer and released by Yorkshire Water show how wet wipes and sanitary towels can clog up pipes - with the company saying it spends "millions" in resolving blockages.
Yorkshire Water has called for mandatory "do not flush’" labelling on wet wipes, after research found current labelling is leaving consumers confused, reported HullLive.
The research revealed 20% of people view wet wipes as "essential" and 85% of people regularly purchase at least one type of wipe.
But it’s the packaging of wipes and instructions on how to dispose of them that causes confusion, particularly in the case of toilet wipes and baby wipes, which are the most likely to be flushed.
Once flushed, these wipes - even those labelled as "fine to flush" - do not break down in the sewer network and can develop into blockages.
The knock-on effect of this can be sewage escapes into properties and gardens and in some cases pollution in local watercourses.
Research shows that one in five people believe even wipes without a "fine to flush" label can be flushed and 38% of people said they would flush biodegradable wipes as they will dissolve or breakdown faster.
Ben Roche, director of wastewater at Yorkshire Water, said: "Consumers are currently faced with an array of different logos and claims on packets of wet wipes, including ‘fine to flush’, ‘do not flush’ and ‘biodegradable’ labels.
"Those labelled ‘fine to flush’ often indicate only one wipe should be flushed at a time, but often this is not followed or understood by customers, with less than half saying the logo indicated only one wipe should be flushed at a time.
"Even then, these wipes generally contain plastic so do not break down in the sewer as toilet roll does. Clearly there needs to be a standard message across all wet wipe packaging and we are calling for mandatory ‘do not flush’ messaging to avoid the confusion consumers currently experience when buying all types of wipes."
Consumers responding to the survey said manufacturers of wet wipes should take responsibility for funding the development of plastic-free wipes (89%), the clean-up of the environmental impact of wipes (73%) and campaigns to encourage correct disposal (62%).
They also said Governments, water companies and retailers should also bear some responsibility for the impact of wet wipes.
Mr Roche added: "We are also calling on the Government to extend the responsibility to manufacturers to cover cost of educating customers about correct methods of disposal, and clean-up costs resulting from incorrect disposal.
"We continue to spend millions of pounds every year to resolve blockages caused by wet wipes and sanitary items, as well as running public awareness campaigns on the correct way to dispose. We have seen some retailers begin to act on this issue, banning all plastic-containing wipes, and we would urge others to do the same."
