Restaurants and takeaways across London are letting grease ooze down into the city’s drains, leading to the formation of a growing collection of giant “fatbergs” beneath the city’s streets.
Several of the fatbergs, which are compact masses of oil, grease, nappies, pads, condoms and other waste items that accumulate in pipes, are being monitored across London.
Thames Water visited hundreds of food outlets across the capital and found that 90 per cent are not stopping waste from going down sewers.
Thames Water is spending £1 million ($1.32m) a month to tackle the grime-filled masses, and says the lack of grease traps to stop filth from going down pipes is “staggering”.
Thames Water’s sewer network manager Stephen Pattenden told the BBC: “We’re not suggesting anyone intentionally pours the contents of a fat fryer down the drain, but it’s more about the gunk that comes from dirty plates, pots and pans.”
The statement comes after a massive 130-tonne fatberg, among the largest ever found in London, was found in the Victorian sewers of Whitechapel.
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The record had previously been set by a “bus-size” fatberg found in 2013 in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Giant fatbergs are currently being monitored in trunk sewers in Savoy Street, Lisle Street, Northumberland Avenue, Whitehall Place and Whitechapel Road.