The wet wipe monster: 2,500 tonnes are flushed down Malaga loos every year

Despite awareness campaigns these products account for practically all the waste that blocks the sewage pipe network. But cotton buds, remains of food and even Covid face masks can do the same

Francisco Jiménez

Malaga

Tuesday, 22 February 2022 | Updated 23/02/2022 10:00h.

The variety of things that people in Malaga throw down the loo is quite surprising. Cotton buds for cleaning ears, cigarette ends, tampons, bits of food, used oil, paint and even nappies. With the pandemic gloves and masks are also being discarded this way, but the worst case by far is wet wipes, to such an extent that for years they have posed a serious problem for the network of sewage pipes because of the blockages and damage they cause.

Despite frequent awareness campaigns, people still throw things down the loo regardless of whether or not they are made of textiles that take two weeks to decompose (toilet paper does so in a matter of hours). These items disappear as soon as you flush, but sooner or later they are going to appear in the sewage network. In Malaga city alone last year, staff at the Emasa municipal company removed 2,502 tonnes of solid waste, most of it tangled wet-wipes. That is equivalent to the weight of 13 commercial aircraft.

Figures from the council show that 686.68 tonnes (an increase of 7.37 per cent) were removed just before they entered the treatment system at the Guadalhorce and Peñón del Cuervo sewage plants last year, while 274 tonnes were filtered by the pumping stations. “Almost all of it was wet wipes,” say sources at Emasa.

The other 1,540.68 tonnes had to be removed directly from the more than 2,000 kilometres of pipes in the sewage network. Many are discovered in time from regular inspections, but at times they form huge clumps and cause a blockage.

In addition, some never reach the sewage plants and accumulate in the pipes until they are washed out by heavy rain. They cause horrible smells and pools of sewage which end up in the rivers or in the sea because the equipment cannot cope.

In recent years Emasa has been taking steps to reduce the impact of wet wipes, such as building a pre-treatment station for storm water at the entrance to the Guadalhorce plant to make it easier to remove more solid waste there and prevent it reaching the overflow channels.

They have also installed more screens at the pumping stations to retain the waste before it reaches the treatment plants and filtering systems at two of the city’s biggest storm relief points, but the council is calling on people to be more civic-minded, saying that if only people would make sure they disposed of these items correctly it would put an end to the problem forever.

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