(Un)Flushables: Designing new intervention pathways in the Anglian Water region

Description

Fatbergs, hardened masses of fat, wet wipes and hygiene products blocking sewers, are a global infrastructural problem, occurring in densely populated cities with ageing sewer systems. In the UK, sewer blockages cost around £88 million every year. In Anglian Water's region alone, an estimated 800 tonnes of material were disposed of via the toilet every week, contributing to more than 40,000 blockages annually at a cost approaching £20 million and to sewer flooding, property damage, and the release of plastics and other contaminants into watercourses and coastal waters.

Despite the scale of the problem, there had been little systematic analysis of the social and cultural drivers that result in unflushable products entering sewer systems and what could be done to reduce this. In 2019, Anglian Water commissioned researchers from The University of Manchester —Alison Browne, Claire Hoolohan and Cecilia Alda-Vidal — to address this gap. The ‘(Un)flushables project built on prior EPSRC-funded research (RE3 Plastic Hygiene work package and ESRC-funded Change Points project) and produced an critical analysis of existing interventions, a multi-sector co-production workshop to propose alternatives, and a peer-reviewed global research agenda.

Period	May 2019 → Aug 2019
Work for	Anglian Water Services Ltd, United Kingdom