Freshers at the University of Chichester are part of a new two-year pilot teaching the public how to correctly dispose of sanitary products.
Southern Water has partnered with the university and eco-friendly disposal bag company FabLittleBags to push the “bin it, don’t flush it” message.
More than 300,000 sustainable bags are being supplied for communal toilets and student halls, with dispensers installed by Southern Water.
Matt Collins, who leads the company’s Unflushables team, said: “The new start of university is a great time to get into good habits, and that includes never flushing anything other than the three Ps of pee, poo and paper. We know people often flush sanitary products because they aren’t aware of how to dispose of them properly. FabLittleBags are proven to address that issue. We hope the pilot will encourage students to keep these products out of the sewer network.”
New figures show the scale of the problem caused by flushing sanitary products down the toilet.
Around 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million pads end up in UK sewers every day. Period products and wet wipes are also behind 66 per cent of all pipe blockages — including the huge “fatbergs” that build up underground.
Southern Water says its Unflushables team cleared more than 11,000 blockages linked to sanitary products and wipes between July 2024 and July 2025.
The team also visited 13,000 households in affected areas to raise awareness and help prevent future blockages.
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