Impacts and managerial implications for sewer systems due to recent changes to inputs in domestic wastewater – A review

Mattsson, Jonathan; Hedström, Annelie; Ashley, Richard; Viklander, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.06.043

Cited by 45 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The formation of blockages and fatbergs (large masses of solid wastes) in sewers is a complex process that typically begins with the accumulation of FOGs and metallic soaps (saponification) on which other solids such as wet wipes found in sewers build up (Ashley et al, 2005; Foden, Browne, Evans, & Sharp, 2018; Mattsson, Hedström, Ashley, & Viklander, 2015). Unflushable products are a substantial component of these accumulations, with recent research showing wet wipes and menstrual absorbents to be principal contributors (Fam, Turner, Latimer, Liu, & Giurco, 2017).…”

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sewer blockages are affected by infrastructural dimensions such as the size of sewer pipes and velocity of wastewater flows (Mattsson et al, 2015). Furthermore, the aging of sewers, and insufficient investment in their maintenance plays an important role (Mattsson et al, 2015).…”

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the United Kingdom, each toilet flush uses water that has been treated to drinking standards to transport unflushable products that could instead be disposed following the solid household waste streams potentially with lower environmental and economic costs (Ashley, 2004; Ashley et al, 2005). At the same time, water saving practices and devices (such as low‐flow toilets) reduce the input of water into the sewerage and sewer pipe velocities and subsequently impact on the self‐cleansing function of sewer systems (Marleni, Gray, Sharma, Burn, & Muttil, 2012; Mattsson et al, 2015). As a result, solids are more likely to settle and accumulate in pipes within “water efficient” systems.…”

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The disposal of unflushable products via the toilet is an enduring problem and increasing contributor to environmental and infrastructural challenges such as fatbergs, water quality and plastic pollution. Rising scientific and public interest in “throw‐away” cultures, and renewed government pressure for water and sewerage companies to act as custodians of water resources, raises questions about how and why impactful disposal practices occur and what might be done to change them. To date there has been little systematic research on unflushable products, and little is known about the routines and practices through which unflushable products find their way into wastewater systems. This paper reviews social science research including historical, sociological, and anthropological studies of cleanliness and hygiene, as well as sociotechnical approaches to the study of household practices and infrastructures to understand the challenges of unflushables. Based on this research, the paper offers a new conceptualization of the unflushables challenge. We argue that unflushables are a distributed problem, one that is not the direct consequence of either individual behavior, product design or infrastructural decline, but the outcome of myriad social, cultural and material developments in society. These include diversity in “flushing” cultures, gendered expectations in cleanliness practices; the evolution of conventions around cleanliness and hygiene; infrastructural imaginaries and expectations; and political dimensions of infrastructural development and maintenance. We demonstrate how social science research is essential in defining a new global research agenda on unflushables that further aids the design of new intervention and policy pathways. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Science of Water > Water Quality

show abstract

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background: Infrastructual and Sustainability Challenges Arimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Service provision approaches involve implementing technical measures to ensure that normal service is maintained in an invisible and uninterrupted way (Hoolohan & Browne, ; see also Spurling et al., ). In principle, sewers could be designed to better facilitate the movement of fat (Mattsson et al., ). In reality, the prohibitive expense of sewer redesign and reconstruction means that in the UK, as in many countries, FOG service provision requires the periodic removal of fat, usually reactively in response to a reported blockage (Arthur & Blanc, ; Gelder & Grist, ).…”

Section: Exemplifying the Nexus At Home: Fats Oils Grease And Kitchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The water–energy–food nexus at home: New opportunities for policy interventions in household sustainability

Foden

Browne

Evans

et al. 2018

Geographical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The nexus of water-energy-food (WEF) is as apparent at the household scale as it is anywhere else. We introduce the "Nexus at Home" as a starting point for exploring the dynamics of WEF resource use and household sustainability. Drawing on two research projects we focus specifically on domestic kitchens as a site where practices of cooking, eating, cleaning and disposing of waste come together. While these practices have long been targets for policy intervention, existing approaches draw on a limited range of perspectives from the social sciences. Reflecting on our work with four non-academic partners (Defra, BEIS, FSA, Waterwise), we consider how social practice and geographies of household sustainability research might be combined with the dictum of "nexus thinking" to re-imagine the framing of policy and intervention to reduce the resource intensity of everyday life. Synthesising existing "home practices" literature in the context of the "live" policy problems raised by our partners, we seek to provide clear guidance for intervening in kitchen practices. We draw on one topic which has not yet been the subject of social practices research: fats, oils and grease (FOG) going down the kitchen plughole and contributing to widespread sewer blockages.In doing so we document the sequence of interrelated food provisioning activities through which WEF is put to use in domestic kitchens and contributes to FOG blockages in sewers. We reflect upon the multiple ways these practices are shaped by the rhythms of daily life, dynamics within the home, wider cultural conventions, and infrastructures. This paper contributes to the nascent transdisciplinary research agenda of translating home practices research into wider conceptualisations of "intervention", with a specific orientation towards academic and non-academic stakeholders who are interested in influencing systems of sustainable consumption and production within, and across, the WEF sectors. K E Y W O R D Sdomestic practices, everyday practice, fats-oils-grease, household sustainability, policy interventions, water-energy-food nexus --

show abstract

“…Several studies had documented the distribution and transport of microbes in sewage systems of urban areas (Kapoor et al 2015;Ashley et al 2015) and in big natural water such as rivers and estuaries (Panasiuk et al 2015;Sowah et al 2014). Little is known, however, about the distribution of fecal indicators in the sediment of stream channels of decentralized areas which its effluents are constantly discharged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Sediment of Local Open Channels Receiving Johkasou Effluent

Fajri

Yamada

Setiyawan

et al. 2017

jstl

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Impacts and managerial implications for sewer systems due to recent changes to inputs in domestic wastewater – A review

Cited by 45 publications

References 59 publications

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

The water–energy–food nexus at home: New opportunities for policy interventions in household sustainability

Distribution of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Sediment of Local Open Channels Receiving Johkasou Effluent

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About