UK bans wet wipes to save marine life

Household wet wipes will be banished in the UK as part of Michael Gove’s crackdown on plastic being thrown away and damaging ecosystems, the government has said.


If they are outlawed, shoppers will no longer be able to buy the wipes, which are mostly made of polyester and contain millions of microfibres impregnated with chemicals.

Tens of thousands of wet wipes are sold in Britain each year, and despite public awareness campaigns, many are still flushed into lavatories, where they end up clogging mains sewers, and go on to kill fish in rivers and other marine life.

A spokeswoman for the department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) said: “As part of our 25-year environment plan, we have pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, and that includes single-use products like wet wipes.

Wet wipes, which contain plastic, slowly break down into microplastics that are then ingested by marine life, with deadly consequences. They also contribute to giant “fatbergs”, giant congealed lumps of fat and rubbish in sewer systems – of which there are believed to be at least 12 under just London now.