The eco guide to wet wipes

These flushable friends are highly convenient and proving to be more and more popular. But they play havoc with sewers and the environment

Is there anything more disgusting than a fatberg? These gargantuan mounds of debris block the intestines of civilisation (ie sewers). Fatberg season used to peak on Christmas Day, when people poured turkey fat down the drains in a mass festive clog. Now they're an all-year hazard, thanks to the inexorable rise of the wet wipe.

There are wet wipes for every conceivable bathroom occasion: deodorising under-arms, removing eye make-up and, perhaps the biggest seller, toilet wipes. Apparently swathes of the population no longer find paper bearable. They're hooked on single-use wipes that combine synthetic cellulosic fibre with plastic fibres, marketed as "flushable".