Back at the start of 2020, we launched our Bin the Wipe campaign. Since then, we have seen a 52% reduction in blockages and a 64% reduction in home flooding incidents.
The campaign has been so successful that the nation’s industry body, Water UK, is coordinating with water companies across the country to take the Bin the Wipe message nationwide.
Our Bin the Wipe campaign has been successfully reducing the number of sewer blockages since 2020, and 2022 saw our teams operating in 24 hot spot areas, engaging with more than 90,000 households.
Wipes are a significant challenge for our sewers, as they do not break down in the way toilet roll does, causing them to settle in pipes and add to or cause blockages. In fact, wipes were present in 64% of the more than 15,000 sewer blockages our team cleared in the year before the Bin the Wipe campaign started.
The campaign combines education on the problems wipes can cause with on-the-ground action from our teams which enables them to speak to wipe flushers face-to-face. This combination has been successful, and in the best performing areas - Washington and Darlington - we found a 91% reduction in the number of wipes found in the sewers.
This improvement has contributed to a 52% reduction in blockages in the hot spot areas since the campaign started in 2020, and a 64% reduction in the number of home flooding incidents.
Those excellent outcomes have caught national attention. In the past year WaterUK, the industry body representing, water companies across the country, has unveiled plans for a national Bin the Wipe campaign, inspired by our success and with the backing of MPs.
Bin the Wipe is a simple message, but one with a significant impact - not just in the North East but now across the country as well.
For us, since its’ inception in 2020, the campaign has:
- Reduced blockages by 52%
- Reduced internal flooding by 57%
- Reduced external flooding by 60%
- Reached over 170k customers in our hotspot areas
- Reduced the wipe count in hotspots by up to 91%.