Huge Blobs of Fat and Trash Are Filling the World’s Sewers | National Geographic

City residents probably become the most aware of their sewer system when it stops working. The public utility Northern Ireland Water is working to get people a little more sewer-conscious by preventing one nasty menace, known as ‘fatbergs.’ These masses of solidified fat, oil, and grease clog up a sewer like cholesterol in an artery. When the resulting mass attaches to sewer walls, it can take some serious shoveling, hacking, vacuuming, and flushing to dislodge. Foreign objects, including supposedly ‘flushable’ toilet wipes, also help the fatbergs to grow. This recent footage from an extraction in Belfast shows just how hard it is to remove fatbergs once they’ve congealed.