Scottish Water celebrates UK plastic wipes ban

“This is a great result for the environment and for customers whose homes and communities have been flooded as a result of sewer blockages”

Brian Lironi
Director of Corporate Affairs, Scottish Water

Scottish Water is today welcoming a major win for our Nature Calls campaign after the UK Government announced plans to ban all wipes containing plastic.

Launched a year ago, our campaign urged customers to bin all wipes and called on governments in Edinburgh and Westminster to ban all wipes that contain plastic.

Each year our teams must unblock more than 36,000 sewer blockages causing flooding to homes and communities.  Around 90% of these blockages are caused by wipes that contain plastic and do not decompose.

Brian Lironi, Director of Corporate Affairs, said: “This is a great result for the environment and for customers whose homes and communities have been flooded as a result of sewer blockages.

“Taking wipes containing plastic out of the sewer network will significantly reduce sewer blockages, sewer flooding and environmental pollution.

 “We are delighted that the UK Government has decided to ban wipes containing plastic and look forward to seeing the new legislation come into force.  We repeat our calls for governments in Scotland and Westminster to work together to make sure the ban comes into effect as soon as possible”.

Last week the Marine Conservation Society revealed that more than 30,000 wipes were found during beach clean-ups in central Scotland alone.

The UK Government’s plan to ban wipes was announced in its ‘Plan for Water’ launched today and will come into force following a public consultation.  An earlier UK Government consultation found that people were overwhelmingly supportive of a ban.