Severn Trent finds bizarre array of items blocking sewers

The water company has recently revealed the top 10 bizarre items that have ended up in the sewers it maintains.

The peculiar inventory includes toys, such as Dora the Explorer having her own subterranean adventure, fragments of a garden shed, false teeth, underwear, slices of a bed frame, glasses, wallets, cutlery and car tyres.

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Despite the amusing nature of the list, the company emphasises that the message of the curious finds is serious.

Grant Mitchell, sewer blockages lead for Severn Trent, said: "Over the years we have seen so many things making their way through the sewers, all you have to do is sift through the skips of unflushable items that are filtered out of the treatment process at our Sewage Treatment Works, and you will be able to find all sorts.

“How some of this stuff has got in there is anyone’s guess, but it makes the job pretty entertaining for everyone. But it does come with a very important message for everyone to be careful what you are putting in the sewers as it can cause messy and costly problems for all our customers."

In the past 12 months alone, the waste crews at the water company managed and alleviated 28,782 blockages.

One of the chief culprits of blockages is wet wipes.

Despite some being labelled ‘flushable’ or ‘biodegradable’ on the packaging, they do not degrade like toilet paper.

The company is backing the Government's new legislation banning the sale of wet wipes containing plastic in England.

Such items can block up the system and result in sewage flooding into homes.

Mr Mitchell added: "Although we see items like this at times, the thing we see the most that cause blockages are wet wipes and other ‘unflushable’ items such as nappies and sanitary products.

"We would urge everyone to keep in mind that only the three P’s should be put down the toilet – pee, poo and paper and bin everything else."