Modern sewers are not designed to cope with disposable products such as cotton buds. Cotton buds are not biodegradable and won’t break down quickly, it can take years for them to break down and in that time our sewers will become clogged with masses of cotton buds, baby wipes and other disposable items.

This is why you should not flush cotton buds down your toilet, toilet pipes are narrow and can very quickly become blocked. Try where possible to place used cotton buds and disposable sanitary products in a bin.

Below are a few other products that can take a lot longer that you may think to decompose;

• Plastic bag: 500-1000 years
• Plastic bottles: 70-450 years
• Tin can: around 50 years
• Leather shoes: 25-40 years
• Thread: 3-4 months
• Cotton: 1-5 months
• Rope: 3-14 months
• Cigarette: 1-12 years
• Nylon clothes: 30-40 years
• Sanitary products and nappies 500-800 years
• Glass bottles: 1,000,000 years
• Hairspray bottle: 200-500 years
• Fishing line: 600 years.
• Glass bottle; 1-2 million years
• Aluminium can: 200 years