A sprawling pile of discarded wet wipes, covering an area equivalent to two tennis courts, has accumulated on the foreshore of the River Thames beneath Hammersmith Bridge. The unsightly mound, dubbed 'Wet Wipe Island', has become an unlikely tourist attraction, drawing onlookers and prompting a major cleanup operation by the Port of London Authority (PLA).
The PLA estimates that more than 180 tonnes of wet wipes—equivalent to 15 double-decker buses—will be dredged from the river over the next month. Using a 'rake-and-shake' method, workers are sifting the wipes from sediment before transporting them to landfill. The cleanup is self-financed by the PLA, which declined to disclose the exact cost but described it as 'in the hundreds of thousands' of pounds.
Local residents and workers have expressed shock and frustration at the scale of the problem. Adam Perry, an architectural designer whose office overlooks the bridge, said: 'I'm shocked... It makes me emotional and frustrated that people are actually flushing their wet wipes instead of disposing of them correctly.' Russell Page, a regular at a nearby pub, added: 'It's not until you see it up close that you realise it's so dreadful.'
Environmental charity Thames21 has been manually removing wet wipes from the Thames since 2017, collecting around 140,000 by hand. Liz Gyekye of Thames21 warned that the wipes, most of which contain plastic, are 'devastating for wildlife and potentially humans'. Thames Water clears 3.8 billion wipes from its network annually at a cost of £18 million. Although the government has pledged to ban plastic-containing wet wipes, progress has stalled since the general election.
Despite the grim spectacle, Grace Rawnsley, the PLA's director of sustainability, highlighted the broader recovery of the Thames: 'The story of this river is the story of recovery... It's on its way back to being miraculous – but we still have further to go.'
