Fat on a StickShoveling fat under London's glittering Leicester Square (aerial picture) last week, a worker helps remove the estimated 1,000 tons of oily solid waste that had completely blocked the sewer, creating a risk of flooding and sewage spills.To eradicate ten years' worth of such food waste—enough to fill nine London double-decker buses—from under the city's busy West End, the private Thames Water company has drafted teams of "flushers.""We're used to getting our hands dirty, but nothing on this scale," sewer flusher Danny Brackley (not pictured) said. "We couldn't even access the sewer, as it was blocked by a 4-foot[-thick, or 120-centimeter-thick,] wall of solid fat."(Related video: "Sewer Diver in Mexico City, World's Worst Job?")—James Owen in London

Photograph courtesy Thames Water