In a discovery that sounds like something out of a horror movie, a monstrous, record-breaking fatberg was found lurking beneath the streets of London’s Whitechapel area in 2017. This colossal mass, a congealed block of waste that had been growing in the city’s sewage system, was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest of its kind.
Described as a “living glob of congealed fat, cooking oil, nappies, and wet wipes,” the fatberg was a disgusting testament to modern human irresponsibility. Experts from Thames Water, the city’s water and sewage provider, stumbled upon the blockage in September 2017 and were stunned by its size.
The sheer scale of the fatberg was staggering. It measured a jaw-dropping 250 meters (820 feet) in length, a distance longer than two football fields. Weighing an estimated 130 metric tonnes (286,601 pounds), it was a hardened monstrosity that was blocking a major sewer line and had the potential to cause catastrophic sewage backups into homes and businesses.
The discovery prompted a lengthy and challenging cleanup operation. Crews had to work for weeks to chip away at the solid mass using high-pressure hoses and specialized equipment. The fatberg was so dense that breaking it up was compared to drilling through concrete.
The Whitechapel fatberg brought global attention to the growing problem of what is flushed down drains. Authorities used the incident to raise public awareness about the damage caused by improper waste disposal, urging people to avoid flushing anything other than human waste and toilet paper.
The infamous fatberg was so unique that parts of it were even put on display at the Museum of London, allowing the public to get a close-up (and thankfully, odorless) look at this monument to modern waste.
