While disposing of waste in our bathrooms may seem harmless, it often contributes to a negative impact on our environment. Mission Ocean and Waters project Climarest shows how our careless everyday actions create unnecessary problems in our waters.
To protect marine ecosystems and biodiversity, the European Commission has put in place the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). It aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) of EU marine waters, protecting the marine environment from pollution, such as litter and chemicals that harm marine life. However, the protection of our environment also falls on citizens.
To introduce the public to its harmful actions, Mission Ocean and Waters project Climarest has identified the items that people commonly flush down the toilet. These include cotton buds, contact lenses, condoms, sanitary pads, tampons, and wet wipes. These items, which should be disposed of in the bin, cause blockages in sewer pipes and lead to ‘fat bergs’ – huge masses of waste formed in a sewer system made up of items that shouldn't be flushed.
Ida Beathe Øverjordet, senior research scientist at SINTEF, the research organisation behind the Climarest project, offers insight into the problem: ‘Even if a product is branded as natural, this doesn't mean that it simply dissolves away when released into the natural environment. Such products still have very long decomposition times and should not be flushed down the toilet, even if they're labeled as biodegradable'. For example, wet wipes can take up to 200 years to decompose and longer if they contain plastic. That’s why even products labelled as ‘flushable’ should be disposed of in regular waste bins. To combat this issue, the European Commission has adopted the EU Circular Economy Action Plan. It promotes the proper disposal of materials and aims to reduce marine litter, including items like plastics and wet wipes that contribute to waste in oceans.
The impact of flushed items on our environment
Items flushed down the toilet go through pipes into a large sewer that contains the waste from many households. Sewage treatment plants then have to filter it through a cleaning process before the clean water is released into rivers. According to Ida Beathe Øverjordet, wastewater plants do not catch all the waste before it is discharged into the sea. A large proportion of these plants only act as primitive facilities and collect a small proportion of the waste. This creates problems for the environment as the waste flows from rivers into the seas and oceans, polluting and harming marine life.
So, what is the impact on our ocean and waters? It is difficult to measure, however, a small town in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in Norway, is currently measuring the amount of waste collected in the outflow points. It shows that as much as 80kg of waste passes through the town’s wastewater system every week. The town has a population of around 2,500 inhabitants, which shows that the problem is much worse in larger cities around the world.
What can be done?
The good news is that Mission Ocean and Waters is tackling these issues with over 50 projects focused on the restoration of our waters. Climarest is one of the projects addressing the Mission Ocean and Waters objective to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. It is important to note that the public can also make a difference with small changes in their lives. Climarest scientists and researchers advise people to always have a waste bin in the bathroom to prevent waste from entering our waters. The problem also lies in product marketing – while some household items are labelled as ‘flushable’ and safe for the environment, people should avoid flushing them down the toilet. Everyone can make a difference for our nature, restoring and protecting our ocean and waters!
About Climarest
Climarest project, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon EU programme, is dedicated to advancing restoration techniques in diverse coastal areas. With a focus on achieving Mission Ocean objectives, the project spans an impressive range of demonstration sites from the High-Arctic region of Svalbard to the southern waters of the Madeira archipelago. Find out more about Climarest here.