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

Abstract

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

Increased personal protective equipment litter as a result of COVID-19 measures

“…Littered items can be transported by weather conditions into drains and sewerage systems, creating potential blockages where they entangle with other solids (for example, leaf litter) 40,41 . Where combined sewerage systems are used this can create a direct route from the terrestrial into the marine environment 42 or into rivers/ streams 43 .…”

The Health and Environmental Impact of Plastic Waste Disposal in South African Townships: A Review

“…The increased human population impacts the distribution of plastic waste, and this can ultimately lead to pollution of the environment, which is evident in the decline of the natural environment [ 53 ], mortality of aquatic organisms [ 54 ] and blockage of sewage systems, especially in third world countries [ 55 ], thereby resulting in breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease-causing vectors as well as foul odours [ 56 ], reduced aeration and water percolation, causing reduced productivity in agricultural lands [ 57 , 58 ].…”

The Value of Urban Flood Modeling

“…Existing dual drainage models are also rarely capable of representing system operations and societal practices that can influence flooding processes. For example, behaviors such as littering or improper disposal of clogging substances in sewers can significantly increase flood risk (Alda‐Vidal et al., 2020; Armitage, 2007), while infrastructure maintenance can play a key role in flood mitigation. Simulation of these processes using the parameterizations provided in existing UFMs remains challenging (Tscheikner‐Gratl et al., 2019).…”