Hundreds of millions of wet wipes are being removed from sewers across Sussex and Hampshire every year, according to new estimates from Southern Water.
The company’s dedicated FOG and Unflushables team says around 1 billion wet wipes are removed from the sewer network across the South East annually.
In Sussex, an estimated 330 million wipes are removed each year, while in Hampshire the figure is around 270 million. Kent accounts for an estimated 370 million wipes, with a further 30 million removed on the Isle of Wight.
Southern Water says if 1 billion wet wipes were stretched out, they would reach more than 111,000 miles, the equivalent of four and a half times around the Earth. The total weight is estimated at around 4,500 tonnes, similar to 30 adult blue whales.
Wet wipes have become one of the biggest causes of sewer blockages. Between 2020 and 2025, Southern Water says they were behind 59 per cent of blockages cleared across its network, amounting to more than 91,000 incidents.
Matt Collins, FOG & Unflushable manager said, “We deal with around 30,000 blockages every year, and a lot of these could be avoided if wipes and other non-flushables were put in the bin instead.
“Unlike toilet paper, wet wipes, even those labelled “flushable”, don’t break down quickly enough. Instead, they snag in pipes and combine with fats and debris to form fatbergs that block sewers and overwhelm the system.
“From spring next year, it will be illegal to sell wet wipes containing plastic. This is a really positive step, and one many of us in the industry have been hoping for. But from what my team and I see day to day, it doesn’t go far enough to reflect the scale of the problem.”
The ban on plastic wet wipes comes into force in spring 2027, but Southern Water warns that so-called flushable wipes can still cause blockages.
The company is urging people across Sussex and Hampshire to only flush the three Ps — pee, paper and poo — and put wipes in the bin to help protect homes, reduce costs and safeguard the environment.
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