Fatberg

A dried section of the Whitechapel fatberg, on display at the Museum of London

A fatberg is a rock-like mass of waste matter in a sewer system formed by the combination of flushed non-biodegradable solids (such as wet wipes) with fat, oil, and grease (FOG) deposits.[1][2][3] The handling of FOG waste and the buildup of its deposits are a long-standing problem in waste management, with "fatberg" a more recent neologism.[4] Fatbergs have formed in sewers worldwide, with the rise in usage of disposable (so-called "flushable") cloths. Several prominent examples were discovered in the 2010s in Great Britain, their formation accelerated by aging Victorian sewers. Fatbergs are costly to remove, and they have given rise to public awareness campaigns about flushable waste.

  1. ^ Del Mundo, Dann Marie N.; Sutheerawattananonda, Manote (2017). "Influence of fat and oil type on the yield, physico-chemical properties, and microstructure of fat, oil, and grease (FOG) deposits". Water Research. 124: 308–319. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2017.07.047. ISSN 0043-1354. PMID 28777952.
  2. ^ "Monster fatberg longer than two Wembley football pitches clogging up Whitechapel sewer". corporate.thameswater.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Wet wipes could face wipe-out". BBC News. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  4. ^ Wallace, Thomas; Gibbons, David; O'Dwyer, Michael; Curran, Thomas P. (2017). "International evolution of fat, oil and grease (FOG) waste management – A review". Journal of Environmental Management. 187: 424–435. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.11.003. hdl:10197/8257. ISSN 0301-4797. PMID 27838205.