'Bin it, don't block it' - South West residents urged to dispose of cooking oils safely this Christmas
Thames Water says sewer blockages have cost its customers around £18 million over the past year
Last updated 24th Dec 2020
As food preparations get underway for Christmas Day, people across our region are being encouraged to think of the environment.
Thames Water - which supplies Swindon, as well as parts of North Wiltshire and Gloucestershire - is expecting sewer blockages to spike over the festive period.
It claims that some residents can be guilty of pouring their excess turkey fats, cooking oils and kitchen greases directly down the drain.
This causes blockages, which in turn can lead to raw sewage entering people's properties.
Thames Water has attended around 75,000 of these incidents over the past year - costing customers an estimated £18 million.
In the video below, alternative ways of wasting Turkey fats are suggested:
During the last 12 months in Swindon, around 250 blockages - a fifth - were caused by people disposing of their cooking oils unsafely.
'Think about what's going into your sink'
Anna Boyles, Thames Water's Head of Performance, Risk and Optimisation, has spoken to Greatest Hits Radio:
"If the sewers get blocked, the waste water has to go somewhere.
"It can go in water courses, it can go in rivers and streams. Again that can cause damage to the environment, to the wildlife, to the ecology.
"It's really really unpleasant. Please just remember the '3 Ps' - pee, poo and paper. They are the only things that should be going into our waste water system.
"Think about what's going into your sink as well - bin it, don't block it".