“The strange case of the wipes” this is the motto chosen by the public company of Water Supply and Sanitation of the Costa del Sol, Acosol, and the water cycle management company, Hidralia, to carry out the awareness campaign against the pouring of wet and hygienic wipes to the toilet, which was presented this morning at Acosol headquarters

The presentation was attended by Fulgencio Díaz, manager of Hidralia on the Costa del Sol Occidental, and Manuel Cardeña, CEO of Acosol. Both companies, already carried out in 2017 a joint awareness campaign on the negative effects of throwing this type of waste into the WC, focused on posters and brochures, for their responsibility in the integral water cycle. This year, in addition to different elements of posters, the campaign will be disseminated primarily through social networks to reach as many users as possible, mainly in the municipalities of Marbella, Estepona and Manilva, where both companies work together, although it will be extended to the entire coast.

On this occasion, the main message tries to raise awareness among users that the toilet cannot be used as a wastebasket, and focuses especially on the wipes, due to their widespread use in this regard and the poorly popularized awareness that it is a rapidly biodegradable material, without major consequences. However, these elements take more than 500 years to disappear, causing serious problems in public sanitation and sewerage networks and in the environment.

Fulgencio Díaz, pointed out as an example that only 950 tons of waste has been collected in the last year in the cleaning works of the municipalities of Estepona, Manilva and Marbella. “The problem of the wipes is integral and involves serious damage to the environment and to the sanitation and sewerage infrastructure of the city, mainly in the areas of the historic center, where there is a greater concentration of housing. Hence the need to join efforts between the two companies to raise awareness of their misuse and inform users of the serious damage it entails for their facilities, their city and in the natural environment”, he said.

Manuel Cardeña, stressed that “the responsibility we have in the integral water cycle means that synergies are created to collaborate and work together, and thus carry out projects such as this campaign, which emphasizes the damages that the misuse of Wipes causes in sanitation networks, with the damage that this means for citizens and the environment”.

Cardeña has also stated that “2,100 tons of waste from screening have been collected, collected in the different treatment plants managed by Acosol, S.A. during 2018, wipes being the main waste. The problem with them is that in addition to generating a cost for users and a malfunction of the service, it involves serious damage to the city's environment. We have already worked together with Hidralia in this type of campaigns, now we want to focus on transmitting this message in a very visual way and for this we will use social networks as a platform, in addition to the signage”, he stated.