An island of wet wipes has appeared in London

Small garbage, which we do not hesitate to flush into the city sewer, can lead to a serious environmental disaster. Due to human carelessness, a new island has appeared in London, on the Thames. It consists of used wet wipes thrown by the townspeople into the toilets.

An artificial "napkin" island was formed near the Hammersmith Bridge, in the western part of the British capital. It is the size of two tennis courts and the riverbed has changed because of it. MP Fleur Anderson visited a new land belonging to the Kingdom. She said that the island is so dense that she managed to walk around it. At the highest point, the napkins rise 1 meter above the level of the Thames.

The UK authorities have repeatedly urged citizens not to flush napkins into the toilet. It was even planned to ban these hygiene products altogether. But while the topic is being discussed "at the top", thousands of tons of napkins continue to fall into rivers and seas. The synthetic material from which they are made does not dissolve in water. Napkins pass through sewage treatment plants and end up in rivers.

Napkins not only accumulate in reservoirs, forming shoals and entire islands. They also cause serious damage to the ecosystem. The plastic they are made of turns into a dangerous microplastic under the influence of external factors. It poisons rivers and seas, penetrating into their inhabitants and even into the human body.

This is not the only trouble caused by popular hygiene products. A huge amount of napkins settles on the walls of sewer pipes and sewers. Overgrown with fatty deposits, they turn into massive dense blocks, which are incredibly difficult for employees of public utilities to extract from underground utilities. In London, up to 90% of the pollution blocking the city sewer system contains napkins.