There are two kinds of people in this world: those who look after they flush, and those who refuse to.
If you're in that second group, you've probably made a mistake by clicking on this story about an enormous piece of gunk discovered in a UK sewer.
Divers for South West Water snapped photos of the monstrous "fatberg," a pile of fat, oil, and baby wipes, that hardened into a 200-foot long mass under the city of Sidmouth in the last few years.
For comparison, the buildup is longer than six double-decker buses lined up from end to end.
The enormous blockage will take "eight weeks to dissect" according to an employee for the water company.
South West has a simple message for all you readers disgusted by the images they shared: "Don't feed the fatberg."
"If you keep just one new year's resolution this year, let it be to not pour fats, oil or grease down the drain, or flush wet-wipes down the loo," the company warned.
"The consequences can be significant - including sewer flooding in your own home."
Now that the pile of yuckiness has been located, workers will spend months blasting and breaking it apart to clear the sewers. Eventually, the leftover fat could be burned and converted into electrical energy.
If you're not feeling faint yet, know that this isn't even the largest fatberg ever discovered. In 2017, divers unearthed a 130-tonne, 820-foot long blockage of the same type below London - and presumably they still smell awful to this day.
After all, a Thames Water worker who helped break up a fatberg in 2017 described their smell as "rotting meat mixed with the odor of a smelly toilet."
To avoid contributing to these nasty and expensive public works disasters, South West Water says you should only flush "the three Ps": pee, poo, and paper.
[H/T: Time]
