A massive blockage made up of wet wipes and sewage pulled from an underground pipe near Newcastle has highlighted the problem of the increasing use of wet wipes.

The Hunter Water Corporation tweeted a photo of the blockage, which was removed in January using a crane and buckets in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Eleebana.

Hunter Water's Nick Kaiser said the wipes were becoming increasingly popular with adults around the world.

"The wet wipes are being advertised as basically an extra way to freshen yourself up after the bathroom," he said.

"The whole flushable wet wipe issue is actually a global issue."

Hunter Water said its Eleebana sewage pumping station had been damaged as a result of the blockage.

The corporation said the blockage had weighed about a tonne and took four hours to remove.

Crews used a crane to remove a 7-metre "snake" weighing about 750 kilograms, while another 300 kilograms were removed by crew members using buckets.

Hunter Water said the blockage had been taken a depot for cleaning, and then sent to a local tip.

Mr Kaiser said despite the marketing, wipes were anything but "flushable".

"The safest way to think about what you can put down your toilet is the three Ps — pee, paper and poo," he said.

"Everything else should stay out of the sewer. Unfortunately, there are no actual standards for what is flushable.

"So you'll flush the toilet and the wet wipe will disappear, but it just doesn't break down."

Mr Kaiser said if the wet wipes did not cause a blockage in the system, they would typically find their way to a sewage treatment plant.

"Then it's just a matter of them getting filtered out and then they go into landfill," he said.

Mr Kaiser said the wipes could cause issues all the way through the sewer system and even once they reached the wastewater treatment plant.

"Things like floss, cotton buds, even coffee granules have to be filtered out of the sewer at some point," he said.

'Fatbergs' lurking in world's sewers

Disposable wipes are costing authorities tens of millions of dollars as more people flush them down the toilet, with manufacturers and sewerage companies scrambling to fix the problem.

Queensland Urban Utilities spokeswoman Michelle Cull last year said despite efforts to get the message through to consumers, the problem was getting worse.

"I think a lot of people just aren't aware that they shouldn't be putting wet wipes down the toilet," she said.

"The big issue is that wipes don't disintegrate like toilet paper does. We remove around 120 tonnes of wipes from the system every year."

Queensland Urban Utilities removes about 120 tonnes of wet wipes from its system every year. ( ABC News: Elise Worthington )

Water Services Association of Australia executive director Adam Lovell said the ultimate blockage was known as a "fatberg", a conglomeration of fat and wipes.

"Fatbergs are horrible — they're absolutely huge, tonnes in weight ... and what happens of course these fatbergs contain quite a lot of wipes that make them even bigger."

One of the most famous fatbergs in London in 2014 was the size of a double-decker bus.

It took 10 days to remove the fatberg from under a major road in south-west London.

Left there much longer, it could have caused raw sewage to start flooding homes, streets and businesses throughout the area.