Why Unblocktober Matters: with Peter Henley from the Water Research Centre

Wednesday 13th November, 2024

Drain blockages pose a growing environmental and infrastructural challenge, and the Water Research Centre (WRc) has been at the forefront of monitoring and addressing these issues. The organisation provides consultancy, technical services, accreditation schemes, research, innovation and training to the water, waste and environment sectors around the world. Its work is vital in aiding the creation of sustainable solutions to today’s problems.

Peter Henley, the Head of Pollution and Flooding Reduction at the WRc, plays a key role in this work. A wastewater flooding and pollution specialist, Peter has an extensive background in sewer flow surveys, and in pipeline condition assessment and rehabilitation, and has witnessed firsthand the growing strain on the UK's sewerage systems.

In this interview with Unblocktober, Peter speaks about the critical issues surrounding sewer blockages and spills, and sheds light on the steps that all of us can be taking to improve the situation.

What problems are we facing due to drain blockages?

The greater demands on our sewerage system from population growth, urban creep and climate change have left the network increasingly susceptible to failures, primarily in the form of blockages and spills. This is being accentuated by issues around changing and continuing customer behaviour in terms of what is disposed of via the sewerage system, whether that be wet wipes, fats, oils and grease (FOG), or other unflushable products. This has led to the recent increased public awareness of environmental issues caused by sewer spills, either caused by lack of capacity, or from sewer blockages.

The most significant environmental consequence of this is that untreated sewage is discharged into our most sensitive environments, with catastrophic impact on our aquatic life and the amenity value of these watercourses. While sewer spills during storm events can be heavily diluted due to the increased rainwater flows, dry weather spills have a much more significant environmental impact, and these are typically caused by blockages that block our sewers or pumping stations, leading to sewage escapes.

Research continues to show that wet wipes are the biggest cause of sewer blockages and - while the industry has taken steps to inform against their disposal - they continue to cause problems in our sewers. When these wipes are combined with FOG, the problem is exacerbated, leading to repeated issues in certain areas, especially in our small-diameter sewers in and around properties.

Although many years of information campaigns undertaken by water companies and government agencies around the impact of unflushable products has seen greater public awareness of the issues around disposing of products down the toilet, there remains a significant proportion of the general public who are unaware, or consider the convenience of disposal via the loo to be preferable to other means. Reaching these people and changing their habits is the biggest challenge, and remains a stubborn one to alter, as people see their actions only in isolation - ie, that it’s “only a few wipes” - rather than in terms of combined impact.

How is Unblocktober helping?

Campaigns such as Unblocktober are critical in maintaining public awareness, and are a great vehicle to attract mainstream media interest to the issues caused by sewer blockages and the role we all can play in reducing their number. Breaking the view that one person’s actions are trivial when their cumulative effect is seen daily is key to moving public awareness forward and changing habits, Unblocktober feeds into this process.

The greatest impact I’ve noted is the campaigns that use ridiculous or funny taglines and catchphrases, but nevertheless focus on the key campaign message that we can all make a difference through what we put down the sink or the loo, even if we don’t regularly flush wet wipes. Even myself, with 30-plus years in the industry, can do more to protect our sewers - from dry-cleaning pans prior to going in the dishwasher, not pouring sour milk into the sink, or selecting non-plastic products to clean around the house.

What is the WRc doing to help?

At WRc, we’ve been involved in various campaigns that promote good behaviour in terms of what is flushed. These include designing posters for use to inform the public on what not to flush, to designing a bathroom bin that help remind children to use the bin for particular nonflushable products in the bathroom.

Our work with Water UK and the UK wipes industry to promote and publicise the Fine to Flush scheme saw a significant change in manufacturing of moist toilet tissues that has continued today, and will lead to a global standard for these flushable products in 2025. I’m also a passionate advocate of the 3Ps message (which emphasises the need to only ever flush pee, poo and paper down the toilet), and have been interviewed in the mainstream media about its importance.

How can businesses help?

Everyone from the individual to the corporations can make and take significant steps to help prevent blockages, but particularly in the hospitality sector, where better grease management in kitchens will help reduce the significant impact in the sewers from FOG. This will require improved standards for grease management devices, and the hospitality sector should work closely with the water industry and the supply chain to develop a truly circular economy for used cooking oil.

A great example of this is where water companies such as Yorkshire Water are using facilities at their treatment work sites to accept FOG disposal with FOG converters, enabling it to be recycled into biodiesel, instead of causing the next fatberg. As the wastewater asset owners, water companies are already investing significant sums of monitoring and sensor technology, supported by greater use of AI to improve their response to issues in the network. This should continue, and the lessons learned should be shared between companies to maximise the benefits across the whole sewerage network.

What should the government be doing to help?

The biggest impact that the government can make is to bring forward the ban on single-use plastic wipes, a move that has cross-party support. The campaign for this ban, led by Unblocktober Award winner Fleur Anderson MP, should be brought into legislation, so the impact of the plastic products can be reduced.

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These single-use plastic wipes have been shown not to break down when they enter the drains, and are the primary cause of blockages. While such a ban would not solve all of the problems with sewer blockages, it would go a long way and have the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.

In broader terms, we should also be putting a greater emphasis on data collection and analysis from an increasing number of sensors in the network, as this will bring improved visibility of the sewerage network. This will enable us to detect and identify blockages earlier, before they cause a flooding or environmental impact. This will move the dial towards a more proactive maintenance strategy, and away from the current costly reactive approach.

Finally, customer information needs to be improved and coordinated nationally to change behaviours around sewer misuse, similar to the Keep Britain Tidy campaigns of the past. Education programmes in schools can improve understanding of the water cycle, and how we all play a role in how our drains and sewers perform.

Thank you once again to Peter for sharing these insights with us! You can find out more about the Water Research Centre’s important work here, or read our previous interview with Peter about the conclusion of the Fine to Flush scheme.

To learn more about Unblocktober and how to sign up, click here.