Push to bin period products cuts toilet blockages

A push to encourage the non-flushing of sanitary products has seen toilet blockages across Chichester plummet, according to Southern Water.

It has been working with the town's university on getting students to dispose of the "unflushable" items correctly, offering instead more than 300,000 "easy, hygienic and discreet" bags in which to bin them.

The project, launched last year, saw the number of blockages drop to 11 between September and December, compared with 29 during the same four month period in 2024.

Matt Collins, from Southern Water, called the 62% reduction "a great result".

Southern Water said 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million sanitary pads make it into UK sewers every day, and 66 percent of all pipe blockages are caused by period products and wet wipes.

And recent surveys have revealed that over a third of users have flushed a period product, with many admitting they do it because they are unable to dispose of them properly.

"Every year my team deals with tens of thousands of incidents across our region caused by the wrong things being flushed down the loo," said Collins.

"People often flush these products because they don't know how to dispose of them properly, so campaigns like this show what a difference education can make."

Sustainably-sourced, plant-based bags, provided by TheFabBagCo, have been placed in the University of Chichester's communal loos and its halls of residence.

Its Environment & Sustainable Development Officer, Lucy Ferre said the bags had been "a big hit".

"They have also sparked some great conversation and awareness building around what should and shouldn't be flushed," she said.

The FabBagCo inventor and CEO Martha Silcott, said she felt proud of the project, adding that "a small change can have a big impact".

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