We know we shouldn’t, but we keep flushing the wipes down the toilet, a gesture that can create a true sewer monster. Some as large as buses have been recorded. A mass of waste that can reach seas and rivers and contaminate them with microplastics.

This Monday, the United Kingdom introduced a pioneering law: ban the sale of wipes containing plastic. They represent around 90% of all wipes sold. The most common plastic compounds are polypropylene, polyethylene and polyester.

Antonio Amarillobiologist and spokesperson for Ecologistas en Acción, warns that these components end up fragmenting and lodging in our staple foods or even accumulating in the tissues.

To understand the magnitude of the problem, just look at the wipes consumption figures. In the United Kingdom, on average a person uses 38,000 wipes in a lifetime and, in just one year, the entire population of the country can spend 10.8 billion wipes.

In Spain, environmental groups consider that intermediate measures that would generate more citizen awareness would be enough. “Preventive campaigns can even be carried out in some way to force companies that sell this type of products not to label that they are biodegradable and they can be eliminated,” as Antonio Amarillo explains.

Wipes are the most present waste in rivers above cigarette butts and plastic bags.