Along the serene bend of the Temza River, near the Hammersmith Bridge in West London, a gloomy environment is finally dismantled.

The nickname “island of Wet Wipe”, this grotesque artificial land mass – formed from about 180 tons of captured moist wipes that mounted on the front bank of the river – is removed this week. The work began at the beginning of this month and is expected to conclude by the end.

The mass, which is approximately the weight of 15 London buses with double decks and covers an area of ​​two tennis courts, has been growing quietly for years.

“There are only hundreds of thousands of humid wipes there when you get closer,” said Emily McLean, a senior technical adviser for London administration’s port, who wages cleaning in partnership with Thames Water, she said As it happens Host Nil Köxal.

“They are mixed with the river sediment, so they are all brown … Then it mixes with other pieces of litter, so it just forms these big embankments.”

How was the island formed?

The island, says McLean, formed gradually over the years, after some wipes described as correct, have been sent to the household toilets and flooded the city sewer system.

These wipes were stabbed into the river through crowded points, especially accumulating near the Hammersmith Bridge because of the bend in Rijeka, which caused the debris to settle and retract.

And the problem is not just that it is the eyes.

Wet Wipe Island changed the flow of the Temza River, causing great concern about its influence on water life.

According to environmental experts, matte wipes – many of which contain plastic – represent a serious threat to the gentle ecosystem of Rijeka, in which home is 125 species of fish and even serves As a nursery For five types of sharks.

A recent study showed that 70 percent of Thames Flounder They have plastic fibers in the stomach. As the wipes are slowly falling apart, they threw microplastics into the water, which the marine life swallowed easily, damaging the internal organs and interfere with feeding patterns.

The next steps

Due to the scale of the island, the London administration port ordered an independent ecological study before continuing cleaning.

McLean says the crews use huge mechanical excavators to remove the island in an ecologically responsible way, using what is called “special rake and shudder” technique that sifes the riverbed from the river bed without disturbing the natural sediment.

Then these wipes, he says, were “taken to disposal.”

It attributes broad support to help with cleaning. Thames21 charity organization, which oversees the place since 2017, played a key role in raising awareness and helped to build a large -scale case, says McLean.

Before the mechanical surgery began, volunteers manually removed more than 140,000 individual wipes, while mapping the contamination scope.

Now the findings from this effort could help the formation of future legislation. McLean says he is “very pleased to hear” which is Fleur Anderson, a local MP, He takes an account in a parliament to ban plastic in wet wipes.

The cleaning team also plans to analyze the samples of removed waste to determine the amount of plastic present, in an effort to strengthen the case for the upcoming legislation.

“We really hope that this project will have a really positive environmental impact,” McLean said.