Massive clean-up effort aims to pull 180 tons of wet wipes from River Thames

180 tonnes of congealed wet wipes – the equivalent to the weight of 15 double-decker London buses – are being removed from the River Thames in a month-long operation.

Work to remove London’s so-called ‘wet wipe island’ will help improve the water quality of the River Thames.

Led and co-ordinated by the Port of London Authority in collaboration with Thames Water, the operation is removing the wet wipe island, along a 250-metre stretch of the tidal Thames near Hammersmith Bridge.

The island, which is about the size of two tennis courts, has changed the course of the river and likely harmed the river’s aquatic wildlife and ecology.

Normally, clean-up efforts involve hand-removing them, but a larger-scale clean-up effort is now underway to remove the potentially dangerous wet wipe island.

Thames21 has been monitoring the island since 2017, and its work has helped plan the mass removal project.

St Paul’s School is also supporting the clean-up and giving access to its grounds to allow the eight-tonne excavator to carefully remove the ‘island’.

The wet wipes and other pollutants will then be taken away in skips and responsibly disposed of.

It comes after Thames Water recently announced a further £1.8billion investment to improve river health across London.

Port of London Authority’s Director of Sustainability, Grace Rawnsley, said: ‘This is the first time anyone has sought to execute a mass, mechanical removal of wet wipes in this way.

‘We want a cleaner, healthier tidal Thames and will continue to work with all interested parties to secure that.’

Thames Water’s Head of Tideway Integration Group, John Sullivan, added: ‘Blockages caused by wipes are a leading cause of pollution and we remove an estimated 3.8 billion wipes from our network each year.’

London isn’t the only city dealing with congealed wet wipes – Yorkshire Water reckons ‘millions’ is spent by staff clearing drain blockages each year.

Water bosses want people to use the ‘Three P’ rule and only flush pee, paper and poo down the toilet.

When it comes to sinks and drains, they are urging families to put used cooking oils, wipes, nappies, sanitary products and tampons in the bin.

When these products are flushed, they form fatbergs – congealed masses of oil, grease, and fat poured down drains combined with non-biodegradable items such as wet wipes, nappies and cotton buds.

In 2019, Thames Water removed 140 tonnes of fatbergs from the drains of Greenwich, Pall Mall and the Shard.

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