Out of the frying pan and into the ocean: it is a path Colleen Hughson is desperate to eradicate.

How to keep your sewers clean Use paper towel to wipe pans after cooking and dispose remaining oil in the bin

Use paper towel to wipe pans after cooking and dispose remaining oil in the bin Once cooled, pour fats and oils onto a compost heap

Once cooled, pour fats and oils onto a compost heap Small amounts of household cleaners and detergents are fine in the sewer — but do not flush or wash harsher chemicals such as paint down the drain

Small amounts of household cleaners and detergents are fine in the sewer — but do not flush or wash harsher chemicals such as paint down the drain Do not put tea leaves, coffee grinds or food scraps down the sink

Ms Hughson does not necessarily describe herself as a "greenie" or environmentalist, but prefers to be known as a woman who loves the beach and wants to ensure its existence for decades to come.

"Our oceans are choking, we need to do something because otherwise it's only going to get worse," she said.

And part of her mission is making sure domestic cooking fats and oils do not go down the sink.

While walking along Warrnambool's Shelly Beach in south-west Victoria in 2017, Ms Hughson found balls of a white-grey gunk dotted along the coast.

"When I picked it up, it had a stench to it that made my stomach churn," she said.

Congealed fat is often found tangled with hairs and plastic. ( ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles )

The golf ball-sized greyish-white lumps were tested by the Environment Protection Authority, with laboratory results revealing the smelly lumps were an amalgamation of several types of fat, along with hairs and small bits of plastic.

"It's a bit like the fatbergs in London. It all congeals in people's pipes and eventually it makes its way to the ocean through the treatment plant," Ms Hughson said.

"One of my neighbours picked one up and she ended up vomiting; anytime she sees one now, she starts dry-retching.

"She says she'd rather pick up dog poo with her bare hands than another fatball."

Ms Hughson said she was still finding fatballs along the shoreline of south-west Victorian beaches.

Volunteers like Colleen Hughson are calling on companies to replace plastic ear-cleaners with biodegradable paper options. ( ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles )

How do you make a fatberg?

Fatballs and their bigger, uglier cousin — fatbergs — occur when various oils and fats combine with other chemicals and materials that get tipped down the drain.

This mixture combines with wastewater and bonds into a soapy, waxy compound.

Flushable wet wipes in particular have also become a concern in Australia.

In Victoria's south-west, the coagulated masses formed when fatbergs and wipes combined have been given the nickname sewage 'sheep' while it's also proving a problem for water authorities in Queensland, Tasmania and Sydney.

Warrnambool's Waste Treatment plant has various levels of screening designed to screen floating materials out of water before it is sent into the ocean. ( ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles )

In September 2017, a 250-metre-long, 130-tonne fatberg was found in the sewers of the London suburb of Whitechapel.

The mass of congealed fat, wet wipes, nappies and condoms was as hard as concrete and took workers more than two months to remove.

A sample from the fatberg was then put on display in the museum of London.

A piece of the 250-metre-long fatberg, removed from sewers in the Whitechapel area of East London in 2017, displayed at the Museum of London in London. ( AP: Matt Dunham )

London's Thames Water — the UK's largest water and wastewater services company — clears one sewer blockage every seven-and-a-half minutes and spends about $1.8 million each month removing them.

The last line of defence

Warrnambool's waste treatment plant sits hidden from view in a bunker just metres from the Southern Ocean shoreline.

The plant treats sewage from a population of about 36,000 in Warrnambool and surrounding areas, and also treats trade waste from the dairy and livestock industry.

Water goes through a two-stage process designed to remove all foreign objects and return the water to an environmentally safe level to be sent back out to sea.

Ian Bail is excited by the plans for Warrnambool's Waste Treatment plant. ( ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles )

"Once people have flushed it, it all ends up with us," said Ian Bail, Wannon Water general nanager.

"The purpose of a sewage treatment plant is to protect people and the environment so for us, if we're seeing material go through this plant and through to the environment that's something we take seriously."

The old bunker houses 1980s screening equipment and it has been running at full capacity for the past few years, but is set to receive a $40 million upgrade next year.

Balls of waste are regularly removed from screens at reclamation plants in Warrnambool, with filtration screens cleaned daily in some instances.

And while his team is doing its best, Mr Bail said a level of responsibility for the fat balls remained with the public.

"Ultimately, we live in a society where people are after convenience, and we're a service provider — we're here to make their lives easier," he said.

Wannon Water's Warrnambool facility is located just hundreds of metres from the ocean. ( ABC South West Victoria: Daniel Miles )

"But there's a level of responsibility we'd like people to take to ensure that when they do dispose of it (oil), it's not adding to their household costs because we have to work harder to clean up."

Other foreign objects that have been found at Wannon Water reclamation plants over the years include mobile phones, dummies, reading glasses, wedding rings, toys and golf balls.

Mr Bail said upgrades planned for the site at Warrnambool should set a new benchmark for Australia for the sort of treatment that will occur before disposal to the ocean.

Wannon Water urges people not to dispose of products such as cotton buds, nappies, paints, oils, sanitary pads and tampons via the sewerage system.

So what do I do with it?

Part of Wannon Water's education campaign tackles exactly what to do with fats, urging people to "think at the sink".

Their "Be Clever Never Ever" campaign compares oil down sinks to blocked arteries.

The campaign calls on residents to use a paper towel to wipe pans after cooking and dispose of in the bin or, once cooled, pour fats and oils onto your compost heap.

"Really, the only thing that belongs down the toilet is what comes out of you, and what you clean yourself with, not flushable wipes, not fat," Mr Bail said.

"Our customers fully fund our operations so any efficiencies we find are passed on to our customers.

"People at home, if they can flush the right things and not wrong things, that saves us money and saves the customer at the end of the day."

And while such a move can help your water bill and protect water treatment plants, for Colleen Hughson there's a greater reason at play.

"It's not just infrastructure we should care about, we should also care about what's going out to the environment," she said.