At first glance the wipes blend in with the silt on the riverbed. Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not glamorous,\u201d says Rhodes, the programme manager at Thames21<\/a>. \u201cBut through this data generation, we\u2019ve created this dataset of really robust, accurate data that\u2019s given us an understanding of the wet wipes here on the foreshore.\u201d<\/p>\n Hydrographic surveyors from the Port of London<\/a> authority (PLA) are assisting the project, and are riverside before the volunteers arrive, having meticulously marked out channels of the foreshore based on where the last count took place. Volunteers lay quadrats, square frames, on the riverbed and drag metal sticks through the mud. One drag can pull up a clump of flushed wet wipes from what had appeared to be just silt to the naked eye; they are counted, recorded and deposited into a bucket for disposal, along with the plastic, vapes and other rubbish curios that come up.<\/p>\n Elio Gregori is a regular volunteer. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Jim Powell, an operations manager and hydrographic surveyor at the PLA, explains why Hammersmith is such a hotspot for grime. \u201cYou\u2019re on the inside of a bend of the river so the water velocities are slower,\u201d he says. Material builds up on the inside because the water flows faster on the outside. \u201cAs soon as you get bits of wood and tyres, they start to trap sediment and other things start getting caught, like plastic wipes. Then it just snowballs from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Elio Gregori, 66, has attended about 300 sessions since he retired. \u201cYou can look at a place like this and assume that it\u2019s mostly nice and clean, but under the surface is a wet wipe,\u201d he says, fishing a knot of rotten-brown wipes out of his bucket as an exhibit. \u201cWhen it\u2019s in the environment, you wouldn\u2019t really recognise it as a wet wipe. If you look down, it opens your eyes to how much of this stuff is around.\u201d<\/p>\n Many wet wipes contain plastic fibres and are designed to stay intact when wet \u2013 even some marketed as biodegradable. When London\u2019s wipes are flushed down the toilet, they can end up on the riverbanks, mostly through storm water overflow and sewage outfall. Thames Water estimates 3.8bn wipes are flushed into its network each year \u2013 enough to build more than 10 wet and stinking Big Bens.<\/p>\n \u201cPlastic here on the foreshore has the potential to make its way into the ocean and into our ocean food system as well,\u201d says Rhodes. \u201cWe want to remove plastic here so that it doesn\u2019t become microplastic in the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n A young refugee from Sudan attended the count with the community centre West London Welcome. \u201cIt\u2019s really a shame for people to throw bad things through toilets,\u201d he said. \u201cThis waste is in this nice area \u2026 people should have to be more careful in the environment where these things ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n A flushed sanitary item in the silt of the riverbed. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Some relief arrived last year when the delayed Thames Tideway Tunnel<\/a> opened \u2013 the \u00a34.6bn project designed to reduce sewage discharges into the river.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Down to Earth<\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Then diggers came to this part of the foreshore a few months later to remove the infamous \u201cWet Wipe Island<\/a>\u201d, the 180-tonne amalgamation of wipes that had grown so large it had begun to alter the shape of the river. Thames21<\/a> estimates the work removed 5m wipes that had congealed into a 250-metre island.<\/p>\n Now, Thames21 is back to assess what the Tideway Tunnel \u2013 the \u201csuper sewer\u201d \u2013 and removing Wet Wipe Island has done. \u201cWill we see fewer wet wipes? Most likely,\u201d says Rhodes. \u201cAre they re-accumulating? We might be able to start to see any changes and that\u2019s why it\u2019s really important to keep monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n Waste collects near Hammersmith Bridge due to the bend in the river. Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791912851_531_500.jpg\")
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