WEIRD: Sewer clogged by a pile of undergarments [facepalm here]

One of the most common sewer clogs in many cities sewer systems recently has been disposable wipes. They don’t play nice with your plumbing many wastewater treatment systems.

Neither do underpants.

Yes, true story—this one out of the UK—Severn Trent Water reports that a sewer in the town of Shropshire was clogged and causing backups, until crews discovered and removed the culprit: “piles of pants that had been flushed down a toilet, somewhere nearby.”

Image courtesy Severn Trent Water

In the words of their customer operations manager, “How on earth people have managed to flush this amount of underwear, I don’t know. …[This] is just one example of amazing things we find blocking the sewers.”

The story goes on to summarize a useful reminder to customers: What you flush matters, and when you use the toilet as a trash can, problems follow. We have a handy list of 15 things you shouldn’t flush, but there are others.

Boxer briefs is one of them.