[title]
Remember fatbergs? Well, they’re back. Imagine a double-decker bus stuck down a drain. Well, that in effect is what Thames Water engineers removed from a London sewer today — by hand.
The blockage, made up of fat, grease and other noxious materials, was discovered earlier this year and has taken workers three weeks to remove from a Greenwich sewer.
Weighing as much as three London buses, the mass had been taking up 80 percent of the sewer’s capacity and had started to cause problems, which is no surprise. Fatbergs are formed when items that shouldn’t be flushed away build up. They can include anything from wet wipes and nappies to fat and oil that has been poured down the sink.
Matt Rimmer, Thames Water’s head of waste networks, advised Londoners to avoid flushing anything other than the obvious down the loo, and to be extra careful by disposing of oils and fats in the dustbin, not down the drain.
Disgusting? Yes. Preventable? Definitely. (Though we’ll never look at a double-decker bus the same way again.)
Remember this fatberg which was turned into renewable energy?
Here are things you only know if you’re a fatberg flusher.
Grossed out? Get to know Greenwich above ground with our guide of what to do in this leafy, riverside London area.