Flushing the wrong things down the loo – aside from the ‘safe three of pee, poo and toilet paper’ – is costing Greater Manchester residents £24million, according to research from a leading utilities company.
Unbeknown to early 90s rap sensation MC Hammer, his U Can’t Touch This hit has been sampled by United Utilities to draw attention to what can and what can’t be put down the toilet.
They say that one in ten people in the region have blocked their toilet by flushing items such as baby wipes, sanitary products and cotton buds.
Calculating the average price of a plumber’s repair – £99 – and multiplying it by adult residents in Greater Manchester, they discovered the amount that is being lost down the privy.
“The problem is that labelling a product ‘flushable’ is misleading – yes, you can flush it out of sight but it will get stuck further down the pipe,” Tony Griffiths, a Wastewater Network Manager at United Utilities said.
“And with such a multitude of cleaning and cleansing wipes now being actively marketed as ‘flushable’, we felt we needed to do more to raise awareness of this problem.”
The video, titled You Can’t Flush This, features MC Plumber and his sidekicks Dwayne Pipe and Ella Vamess.
United Utilities, which serve around 7million people in the North West, say toilet wipes are the most common tissue issue.
Before their take on the baggy-trousered rapper’s hit, they conducted research which found that 82% thought it safe to flush items that were labelled ‘flushable’.
It turns out that’s a load of old… rubbish.
Wipes don’t break down in the same way as toilet paper, and, along with other items, contribute to the 53,000 blockage call-outs United Utilities handle each year.
Ged Atkins, a plumber for Trafford Housing Trust, has been a plumber for more than 20 years.
“One of the most common problems I’m called out to deal with is blocked pipes caused by flushing the wrong things down the loo,” he said.
“It’s such an easy problem to solve and while the ‘MC Plumber’ video may be a bit of fun, behind it is an important message that could end up helping a lot of North West residents to keep their pipes clear – avoiding unnecessary hassle and cost.”
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