The 2024 Unblocktober Awards: The Winners
Wednesday 22nd January, 2025In 2024, the Unblocktober Awards returned for their third year, once again showcasing an impressive array of nominees who have gone above and beyond to embody the spirit of the campaign and promote its mission. Here, we showcase all the deserving winners for the latest edition of the awards!
Each of our winners have shown an unwavering dedication to Unblocktober’s principles - not just during the campaign, but throughout the year in everything they do. Each winner has been honoured with a commemorative trophy and a digital winners’ badge to celebrate their achievement and share their success online.
Here are the winners of the 2024 Unblocktober Awards:
Our 2024 Business Champion of the Year: The Final Straw Foundation
The Final Straw Foundation is a Hampshire-based charity working with local communities and businesses to highlight the impact of plastic pollution on our environment, working tirelessly to minimise the amount of plastic entering our local seas and wider oceans.
Founded by volunteers in 2018, the charity works with businesses to help them find ethical and sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic, as well as running school workshops, giving talks for the community, and organising regular beach and community clean-ups.
The Final Straw Foundation has been supporting Unblocktober for many years now, feeling empowered to support the campaign since it aligns so closely with their existing work and message. Working directly with the Unblocktober team, the charity enthusiastically reshared Unblocktober’s messaging and guidance throughout the campaign period.
Through this partnership, Unblocktober’s own Jacob Larkin and other dedicated members of the Unblocktober team came to one of the foundation’s public beach cleans in the Portsmouth area, helping to boost the message further.
Amy Rushton, marketing officer at the Final Straw Foundation, said: “We love the way Unblocktober has tackled the issue of drainage head-on but with kindness, support and encouragement.
“We actively try to follow all the amazing guidance shared by the Unblocktober team. For example, in our office we do not flush anything other than the Three Ps down the toilet (pee, poo and paper), and we also avoid rinsing any food crumbs into our sink. We now use a food waste bin, so that it’s easier to dispose of our food waste, and no sneaky crumbs make their way into the drains.
“Thankfully, there is no persuasion needed in our team - everyone is always on board and trying to think of ways to promote the message of Unblocktober all year round! However, I do think we all try to take that message home and have actively made changes and encouraged our friends and families to do the same.”
Amy has pledged that the charity will take part in Unblocktober every year from now on, describing it as “something we keep in mind all year round”, and highlighting the campaign’s powerful potential to create significant change through individual actions.
She explained: “Our key takeaway from Unblocktober is that it is the small things that make the big differences. Just changing a few small behaviours - like flushing wet wipes or draining oil into the sink - will help reduce our impact on the wider environment.
“Changing habits is always hard, and when people have been doing something for a long time, often not even realising the damage it could be doing, it can be challenging to shift their perspective. However, once people see what harm just one wet wipe can inflict, or the damage pouring oil into the sink can do, they make small changes which contribute to a larger behaviour change. We are big believers that small steps lead to huge leaps if we all do our part, no matter how small.
“As people start to understand about what can and can’t be flushed, the bigger challenge is what can and can’t go into the sink. It is so easy to rinse your plate into the sink, or tip the oil away, and so we will continue to share content that encourages behaviour change, always remembering that we are all human, each facing our own challenges, and that every small step taken by individuals is a victory for our environment.”
You can learn more about the Final Straw Foundation by visiting their website: finalstrawfoundation.org
Our 2024 Individual Champion of the Year: Peter Henley
Peter Henley is the Head of Pollution and Flooding Reduction at the Water Research Centre (WRc), a leading provider of research and consultancy services for water, waste and the environment.
One of the UK’s most respected wastewater flooding and pollution specialists, Peter has an extensive background in sewer flow surveys, and in pipeline condition assessment and rehabilitation.
Since joining WRc in 2009, Peter has been directly involved in research to understand the causes of sewer blockages, how they form and how they can be avoided. He also currently leads the work by WRc on testing products labelled as “flushable”, to ensure products are correctly labelled and can truly be considered as flushable.
Peter has been supporting the Unblocktober campaign since its inception in 2019, with the campaign attracting his interest because of its direct relevance to his role in reducing pollution and flooding incidents caused by issues with sewers from what is being flushed.
For this year’s campaign, Peter got involved in a major way, publishing several articles and engaging on this topic on social media to spread the message about the steps we can take to protect our sewers, either by what is flushed and what is poured down the drain.
Take a look at the articles that Peter provided for the Unblocktober campaign:
- Why Was Fine to Flush Phased Out? The Water Research Centre Explains
- Why Unblocktober Matters: with Peter Henley from the Water Research Centre
Peter has also been working hard to exemplify the spirit of Unblocktober in other ways. He explains: “I have a nickname within WRc as ‘Three Ps Pete’, because I repeatedly re-iterate the Three Ps message whenever I can. This includes various radio interviews and many presentations and published articles over the years, where I have taken the opportunity to advise people on what should be flushed and what shouldn’t. I am also active on social media channels such as LinkedIn, posting about the need for the correct use of our sewerage system. This messaging has also been passed on to family and friends!
Peter has pledged to continue being a vocal Unblocktober supporter, and will be encouraging the WRc communications team to prepare a range of material that supports the campaign in future years.
He explained: “In undertaking the Unblocktober challenge over several years, you become more aware of the small but incremental impact each person has on our sewer system and the wider environment as a result. Each wipe flushed, or amount of cooking oil discharged into the system, can and does cause problems downstream in the system, either in causing pollution of our rivers and seas or causing major operational issues in our sewerage network.
“My habits around how I use my wastewater system are pretty well ingrained after many years in the sector tackling the impact of issues around sewer blockages, but that is not to be complacent, as we can all do something more to help reduce these issues. I’m also increasingly aware of how toxic chemicals and plastics enter into our surface water drains, either from highway gullies or surface water run-off, as this often directly flows into our watercourses, leading to significant pollution impacts.
“We all have a role to play in solving this issue; the water companies cannot do this all on their own. If everyone were careful about what they flushed and poured into the sink, then the problems in the wastewater system would be greatly reduced.”
You can find out more about Peter’s organisation, the WRc, and its vital work here.
Our 2024 Newcomer of the Year: Harkeerat Kaur
Harkeerat Kaur is a community engagement officer at ECAS, an environmental consultancy and compliance group, who was named as our Unblocktober Business Champion of the Year for 2022. Harkeerat joined ECAS in 2023, and learned about Unblocktober through her employer - but in 2024, she was able to personally get involved with a project that perfectly embodies the spirit of the Unblocktober campaign.
As a Sikh living in the Midlands, Harkeerat played a fundamental part in a groundbreaking project launched this year to work with Gurdwaras in the Severn Trent region to prevent their fat, oil and grease (FOG) from entering the sewers via their kitchens. Gurdwaras are places of worship for Sikhs. Volunteers there also prepare hundreds of free meals each week for the congregation and the broader community.
The project involved a collaboration between ECAS, Severn Trent, the Gurdwaras, Gurdwara Aid, and Lifecycle Oils. Harkeerat personally worked with representatives from several Gurdwaras across the West Midlands to educate them about the consequences of discharging FOG into the sewers. As a result, Lifecycle Oils have fitted grease traps, which they maintain for free. The company pays the Gurdwaras for the FOG they collect and recycle, while worshippers are also encouraged to bring their domestic FOG to collection points at the Gurdwaras, allowing Lifecycle Oils to recycle it.
It’s estimated that this project will prevent thousands of litres of FOG from entering the Severn Trent sewers annually, with the waste being recycled into sustainable energy instead. This project absolutely sums up what makes an Unblocktober champion - using community relationships to help save our sewers and seas, creating a better outcome for the community and the environment.
Harkeerat explained: “In this project, I learnt that there are opportunities everywhere to help change people’s habits, and there is usually a big appetite for doing so. Collaboration is key. When you bring people from various walks of life together, you can do great things.
I’ll continue to spread the Unblocktober message to everyone I meet, and I’m not afraid to gently challenge people’s behaviours and help them change them in a supportive way. For me, doing good to save our sewers and seas is not a matter of doing it in October; it’s about being a good ambassador all year round.”
You can learn more about ECAS here, or get more insights on Harkeerat’s project from Severn Trent Water.
Thanks again to everyone who put forward nominations for the third annual Unblocktober Awards. Please join us again for Unblocktober 2025!
