This Christmas be kind to your sewers
Did you know that women can buy 11,000 tampons and towels in a lifetime? Unfortunately, a large proportion of these ends up in our sewers.s. When our sewers are misused, we get ‘Fatbergs’ and Fatbergs create issues such as sewer flooding and pollution incidents.
The infamous London fatberg was 250m in length and weighed roughly 130 tonnes. That is equivalent to two airbuses or eighteen Tyrannosaurus Rex. Granted that wasn’t all FOG. Wipes, nappies and even mobile phones contributed to that Fatberg; which took 2 months and £1 million to clear.
Samples of that Fatberg were placed on public display at the London museum, whilst the rest was made into biodiesel. Despite being able to provide enough power for a Routemaster to operate for a whole year, we need to ensure that we prevent Fatbergs from happening. Water companies are exploring new ways to improve network performance ensuring early identification of issues. We previously explored some of these here and here.
What can you do to help?
- Do not pour any of your fats, oils or grease down your drains. Let them go hard and dispose of within your normal rubbish bin, or reuse where you can.
- Stop flushing unflushables (e.g. nappies, tampons, pads, wet wipes etc. (regardless of what the packaging says!))
- Hold on to your phone.
How can nuron help?
Our sewer nervous system continuously monitors and measures multiple flow and infrastructure parameters along the entire length of a sewer network and communicates real-time data to wastewater operators. Using our technology, Water Companies will be able to tell if and when you put FOG in the sewers.
However, as it is Christmas, we thought we would take this opportunity to do a bit more.
On the 13th of December, nuron will make a Christmas announcement. Find out then, how to get your hands on some very special items that will keep your sewers and the environment happy!