Work starts to remove ‘wet wipe island' from Thames
The congealed mass of wet wipes has formed on the Surrey side of the river near Hammersmith Bridge and was described on Sunday night as an 'embarrassment to the capital'.
Given its mass, clean-ups have so far relied on volunteers working by hand.
However, from Monday the Port of London Authority (PLA), which manages the tidal Thames, is using a 'mechanical excavator' to remove the wipes in an operation they believe to be the first of its kind.
The eight-tonne machine will sit on the grounds of St Paul's School and will allow the stretch of wet wipes to be removed when the river is at low tide.
When flushed into the sewage system, wet wipes do not break down as toilet paper does and they enter the watercourse when the sewage system overflows.
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