Lanarkshire residents and businesses are being urged to bin all wipes – and ban wipes containing plastic – as part of a major new campaign to help protect the environment.
Scottish Water is asking the public to join forces to avoid sewer blockages, flooding, and pollution by consigning wipes to the bin.
And it is also calling on governments north and south of the border to work together to ban wipes made with plastic.
The new nationwide campaign – Nature Calls – is backed by a range of other organisations, including the Marine Conservation Society, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Zero Waste Scotland.
Douglas Millican, Scottish Water chief executive, told Lanarkshire Live : “Our message to our customers is clear; please bin the wipes and help us protect the environment.
“And to policymakers we say now is the time to ban all wipes containing plastic and rid our sewers, rivers and beaches of this needless problem.
"Last year, more than 10,000 tonnes of material – the equivalent of 80 blue whales – was removed from Scotland’s waste water plants.
"Many thousands of tonnes more ended up blocking sewers, causing flooding, or being flushed into rivers during storms and heavy rain. Research by the Marine Conservation Society shows that wipes are now the most common cause of beach pollution.
“Wipes are an understandable convenience item - but many contain plastic, that cause serious problems when disposed of inappropriately by flushing down the toilet, like blocked sewers, homes flooded with sewage, and pollution on our beaches and rivers.
“Every year our teams deal with around 36,000 blockages at a cost to customers of £7 million annually and around 80 per cent of the blockages we attend feature wipes.
"Members of the public, communities, campaigners, manufacturers, retailers and governments must all work together to do the right thing for nature now and for generations to come.”
Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: “The actions we take at home can help protect Scotland’s world-renowned rivers, lochs, wetlands and seas.
"Flushing inappropriate items contributes to serious blockages in our sewers, unsightly debris in our rivers and can cause great harm to our marine environment; by being aware of this and changing our habits we can all help protect our precious, rivers seas and wildlife.
“Every year, hundreds of millions of pieces of single-use plastic are wasted in this country - they litter our coasts, pollute our oceans and contribute to the climate emergency.
"Scotland was the first country in the UK to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds and we have taken action to place market restrictions on plastic microbeads. We are pursuing proposals to ban some of the most problematic single-use plastic items, such as straws and plastic cutlery, subject to the impact of the UK Internal Market Act 2020.
“We support the calls to ban wet wipes containing plastic and encourage the UK Government and other administrations to work with us to bring forward bans on unnecessary and environmentally harmful products."
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