Scottish Water says the sewerage system is under pressure

Scottish Water is urging customers to put bathroom waste in the bin instead.

The company estimates about 340 million items such as cotton buds, sanitary protection, razors, contact lenses and nappies were flushed away last year.

The Bag It and Bin It campaign includes television adverts, posters and leaflets featuring the theme music We'll Meet Again.

The television advert shows a woman flushing cotton buds and baby wipes down her toilet as she gets ready for a night out.

By making a simple change to their lifestyle and bagging and binning personal waste, people will be helping to protect their homes Cheryl Black, Scottish Water

But she soon meets her waste again when the rubbish blocks the toilet and floods her bathroom.

Scottish Water, which has teamed up with the Scottish Executive and Clean Coast Scotland for the campaign, said thousands of homes across Scotland suffer similar floods each year as the waste water system was never designed to cope with razor blades, nappies, baby wipes and so on.

Blockages throughout the sewerage system and damage to filter screens at waste water treatment works cost Scottish Water millions of pounds every year to deal with.

Flushed bathroom waste can also injure and even kill birds and other wildlife if they ingest plastics from razors and contact lenses.

Homes and wildlife

Meanwhile, a Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch survey in 2002 showed sewage related debris accounted for 5.8% of marine litter in Scotland.

Scottish Water's customer service director Cheryl Black said: "The waste water system simply wasn't designed to cope with this.

Waste can end up on Scotland's beaches

"By making a simple change to their lifestyle and bagging and binning personal waste, people will be helping to protect their homes from blockages and flooding, as well as helping to safeguard the environment and wildlife.

"This reduces the costs to Scottish Water and ultimately saves customers time and money too."

Chairman of Clean Coast Scotland, John Summers added: "Discovering sanitary items on the beach is extremely off-putting and detracts from the environment and amenity of our coastline.