WE are using our dunnies as dumps and littering our loos.

But it’s not the best way to get rid of your rubbish or unwanted goods.

I myself have been guilty of once flushing my underwear, we’ll leave that story for another time, but I’m not the only one using toilets to destroy the evidence.

People are flushing things so ridiculous, you wonder how it even fits down the pipes.

Sydney Water has released a list of the stupid things we are flushing and reminding us to only get rid of the three p’s — pee, poo and toilet paper.

“As comedian Kitty Flanagan remarked on ABC’s The Weekly, many people regard the toilet like ‘a garbage bin with water in the bottom of it’,” Sydney Water spokesman Peter Hadfield said.

Anything that has fit down the ‘s’ bend of the toilet, Sydney Water staff have found it.

SMALL FAMILY PETS

Yes, it’s actually true — people do flush their goldfish and other small animals.

Mr Hadfield said it was one of the common things found in the wastewater system.

While you may think you are setting the fish free, it’s something you need to stop doing right now.

While a goldfish might be harmless in your tank, they can be pretty menacing in the waterways.

media_camera A goldfish caught up in the wastewater system. picture: Sydney Water

CLOTHES AND SHEETS

Why would anybody in their right mind think flushing clothes and sheets down the toilet is OK?

It’s hard to understand how these can actually fit down the pipe in the first place, but it seems to happen.

North East Water in Victoria said staff often found underwear and jeans, which is weird enough, but bedsheets?

CIGARETTE BUTTS

First of all, why are you smoking in the toilet?

You probably feel like you’re doing the right thing by flushing it and not chucking it on the ground and stomping it out with your shoe, but this is a no-no.

FAT AND OIL

You obviously flush your fat and oil down the toilet because you can’t pour it down the sink.

You don’t tip it down the sink for a reason and the same rules kind of apply for the toilet.

Mr Hadfield said fat and oil combined with other things that shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet, creating “fatbergs” — gross.

MOBILE PHONES

Not surprising, but still funny.

Everybody has probably done this at some point, or at least had their phone drop onto the toilet floor, making you realise how close it was to going in the bowl.

Sydney Water probably have a skip bin filled with iPhones, Samsungs and Nokias.

I wonder if any of them still work after their tumultuous journey into the wastewater system?

media_camera Keep that mobile phone out of your back pocket when you’re doing your business. Picture: iStock

WET WIPES

These cause the biggest problems in our wastewater system.

You would think they wouldn’t be any more harmful than toilet paper, but that’s where you’re seriously mistaken.

Mr Hadfield said if you lined up all the wipes removed from the wastewater system, you could stretch them between Sydney and Los Angeles.

“Wet wipes are a 500 tonne per year problem for Sydney Water because that is how many wet wipes we remove from our system.”

Mr Hadfield said wet wipes were not flushable and they were costing Sydney Water more than $8 million per year and Australia’s entire water industry more than $20 million.

“The impact on the environment can also be dramatic, with overflows caused by sewer blockages impacting on local creeks, rivers and even beaches,” Mr Hadfield said.

One in four people in Sydney are flushing wet wipes and 75 per cent of sewer blockages are because people are clogging the pipes with wipes.

media_camera Wet wipes in our wastewater system — charming. Picture: Sydney Water

Originally published as Weirdest things we flush down the toilet