THAMES Water’s festive fatberg fighting campaign has a fresh hum about it this year.

Its singing sewer team have reworked Jingle Bells to encourage customers across the Thames Valley to ‘Bin it – don’t block it’ instead of putting turkey fat and wet wipes into the drains.

The ‘hit’ single was recorded in the capital’s historic Fleet sewer near Kings Cross, and sends a serious message as well as wishing all 15 million of the company’s customers a happy Christmas.

Sewer manager Will Randall, who plays a starring role in the video, said: “Lots of people will be cooking a roast dinner over the holidays and the leftover fat can cause real problems if it goes down the sink and into our drains.

“No one wants sewage backing up through their loo or kitchen sink at any time of year, let alone at Christmas. It’s important everyone does their bit to avoid blockages. We want the air to be filled with the sound of jingle bells not the smell of sewage so as we say at the end of the video, please ‘Bin it – don’t block it!’”

To prevent a blocked sewer, Thames Water’s advice is to leave cooking fat to cool and then pour it into a container with a lid, like a jam jar or empty margarine tub, before putting into the bin. Alternatively, some councils will recycle fat and oil.

The company also insist wipes are a major issue as they don’t break down in sewers like toilet paper – as they’re made from plastic. Following recent campaigning by UK water companies and the Marine Conservation Society, many manufacturers and wipes retailers agreed to review how products currently marketed as “flushable” are labelled.

Will added: “Often people just don’t realise the consequences of putting things other than human waste and toilet paper down their toilets and drains. The sewers are not an abyss for household rubbish.

“Cleaning pots and pans with washing up liquid does not break down fat, oil and grease for good. When it hits the cold sewers, it clings to wet wipes and hardens into these gruesome fatbergs which cause blockages in the pipes.”

Last year Thames Water’s waste engineers were called out around 600 times on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and responded to more than 1,000 call-outs the following week. This year up to 400 crews will be on standby during the festive period ready to clear blockages from the firm’s 68,000 miles of sewers.

The ‘Jingle Smells’ video sees some of Thames Water’s sewermen team up with colleagues from other parts of the business including finance and drinking water networks. The video is available to watch on YouTube here, Twitter and Facebook by searching for Thames Water, and explains that [to the tune of Jingle Bells] “putting your fat down the drain, can ruin Christmas day”.

Previous singing sewermen videos from Thames Water have included ‘Sewermen Style’, a take on the novelty tune Gangnam Style in 2012, and ‘The Twelve Blockages of Christmas’ in 2014.

The video comes as research carried out by MORE TH>N Home Insurance revealed that more than a third of Brits admitted pouring meat fats, cooking oil and vegetable oil down the sink on Christmas Day, with households throwing away an average of 27ml – the equivalent of one and a half tablespoons of oil on Christmas Day.

The average household usually pours away 23ml in a week.

For one third of Christmas chefs their oily ways have caused sink blockages and 1,377,000 Brits have even had to interrupt Christmas dinner to call out a plumber. Rather than be flooded with gifts, 12 per cent of UK homes have had their Christmas day flooded after blocking their sinks with fats.

When purse strings are tight at Christmas time, the last thing people need is extra expense, but sink damage caused from pouring away Christmas fats and oils cost households an average of £75. Those in the South West are worst for pouring away their festive fats (37 per cent of homes), followed by those in Wales (36 per cent) and then London (36 per cent).

When asked what foods they think are guilty of creating sink-blocking fats, Brits thought chips and sausages were the worst culprits and only 3 per cent thought roast dinners would create oils and fats that would be harmful to pour down the sink.

This less than slick behaviour around the festive season contributes to the 17.67 million litres of cooking fats that are poured down our drains per year. That’s seven Olympic swimming pools’ worth of oil being poured into drainage systems across the UK.

Graham Nicholls at MORE TH>N Home Insurance said: “It can seem like a quick fix, but pouring fats and oils down the sink is definitely not worth it in the long run. It can cause flooding, sink damage and lots of money in repairs. At Christmas, you don’t want home damage to spoil your day so think about what you’re doing with your fats from Christmas dinner, and don’t throw them down the sink otherwise you might find yourself on Santa’s naughty list next year!”

Top tips for safely disposing of your cooking oils and food fats;

· Before you wash pots and pans, wipe them of excess grease with a paper towel to save the oil being poured down the sink.

· You can reuse cooking fats in the kitchen, pour the fat through a filter then put it in the fridge overnight. The next day, the oil will have a jelly-like substance on top. Remove the jelly and throw this away, then you can use the hardened oil again in the pan.

· You can also reuse oil in cooking. If you’ve cooked meat, rather than re-filling the pan with oil re-use it to cook your vegetables.

· If you’ve used fat, suet or lard in cooking, allow it to cool then combine it with nuts and seeds to make a ball, put the ball in your bird feeder or garden for local wildlife to enjoy3.

· Many local councils will collect cooking oils so that they can be re-used as fuel. Contact your local council to see if they collect.