High Pressure Hoses
In a 21st century international society, it seems that we can't encounter anything without creating a brand new word for it. A snowstorm is snowmageddon or a snowpocalypse. A tornado of sharks is a sharknado. And, a congealed mass of things you should never flush down the toilet is a Fatberg.
Before we get into the technical details on removal, a quick question: Where Were The Rats? Back in my day, and I am not all that old, we had big rats eating everything that got down into the sewers. You would think that they could gnaw through all of this paper, synthetic material, and plastic gunk to get to all the delicious lard and food scraps within. Rats are like nature's own reducers, as they can turn just about anything into small piles of torn-up waste. Perhaps if London hadn't gone around hiring pipers to divert the rats from their cities, this problem would never have made the newspapers.
Sounds Like A Craft Beer
Fatberg is not the name of a new hipster beer that is made with extra hops and alcohol, but it could be. The most recent fatberg reduced sewer capacity to less than 5 percent, and was discovered when people complained that toilets did not work. Removal was effected by manner of a high pressure jet that was used for ten days to break up a blob that would have surely vexed Steve McQueen. Apparently the hose has a special feature that also blasts water backward, and is called a "bomb" articles do not mention what the sewer workers do for shelter if the hose fires refuse in both directions. The reversed stream helps the hose power through blockages.
Naming Rights For Sale
Want to buy the naming and sponsorship rights for the Fatberg? Maybe your discount store could take credit for all the wipes, napkins, and other unflushables that made their way into the sewage systems and combined to create this mass of offal. Naturally, if the British (and Americans) could just remember the Second World War, they would not have problems with fats blocking their sewers. Waste fats were once purchased at meat dealers and recycling centers for the valuable glycerine that it contained. "Save Waste Fats" was once a rallying cry of the propagandists, and people would never throw out bacon grease, meat fats, and other oils thanks to the fact that they had value. Even today, restaurants get paid for their fats which are recycled into cosmetics (think of that when you put on your lipstick!) and industrial greases. Without these fats, some of the other items might float their way to the proper destination, but people should be throwing that stuff out in the waste receptacle as well, because most likely you are going to clog your own pipes before those products reach Fatberg status, and you will have to pay your plumber directly instead of just sharing your sales taxes to get rid of something we could all have prevented.