Putting cooking grease down the drain?

[iej]

London ended up with a giant 'fat berg' under the city that was the size of 11 double-decker busses and the length of two football pitches.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...topsy-reveals-growing-health-threat-londoners

 

[mark_wpduet]

I will admit

I did this once. I would say maybe it was a cup of oil. I do not do this anymore because I always knew it couldn't be good. But when I did do it, I ran super hot water and squirted a huge amount of DAWN down the drain with the hot water running. I think in my mind doing that would cut the grease to keep it from building up anywhere.

 

[bajaespuma]

Please don't put it down the drain

Find a nearby friendly restaurant or club that has a grease disposal dumpster next to or near the regular dumpster. They get paid for the grease that gets picked up so they should be very amenable for people like yourself to add to the kitty. More good news is that the grease is reused for things like fuel and feed so this is a green solution to your problem.

 

[iej]

I know over here, Irish Water (the publicly owned water utility company) requires that restaurants and other places with large scale food prep. have grease traps installed to prevent serious amounts of grease running into the public sewage lines.

The advice here for households is just to dispose of normal greasy food plate scraping type stuff into your compostables bin.

The advice here on disposing of large amounts of cooking oil (from deep frying) is to pour cool oil back into a plastic oil bottle and just place it into the normal non-recyclable garbage. I've always been a bit baffled by that as it would likely just burst and end up running around the garbage truck.

Or, if your city/county council has cooking oil recycling facilities, you can bring it there.

Solid organic fats like butter, can be disposed of into the organic / compostable bin.

You shouldn't really be disposing of large amounts of oil in the sink or leaving huge amounts of oils and fats on plates going into a dishwasher.

 

[tolivac]

Bags of grease in trash trucks-----Makes a BIG MESS when the packer is activated.The grease can spray on the trashmen.Thats is why a prudent one will not stand in front of the hopper when the compactor is turned on.Liquid grease may escape from the hopper scupper into the gutter.Try to put the grease in a more rigid container.There is a video of a bunch of grease filled trash bags collected from a restaurant burst and made a HUGE mess!!!At least the hopper was lubricated!They would need to pick up a few mattaresses to clean and polish the hopper floor.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Find someone local running an old Mercedes or VW diesel that burns it and donate to them

 

[askolover]

As far as septic tanks. That should be a BIG NEVER, I can only imagine what these would do to the leach field.

 

 

When I was about 3 years old, our neighbors had to have the entire yard dug up and new field lines installed because she told me she used to put grease down the drain.  Their house was built around 1968 after ours was so this was around 1974.  Grease wreaked havoc in six years time and there were only two people living in that house.  

 

[circlew]

Grease traps are nasty!

I knew a few people that had septic tanks, and grease traps on the kitchen drain lines. One of them was my mom's friend Marguerite, and I remember them having trouble with it the day we visited them in late Winter '62. She had fixed a nice lunch for us, and when she was cleaning up after we ate, the sink drain was clogged. When she turned on the disposer, the dirty water came up in the other side of the sink. She had their son get a plunger. She plunged on the disposer side while my mom held the stopper down on the other side. The water went out of the sink, but when Marguerite opened the Frigidaire dishwasher, a tidal wave of yucky water ran out across the floor. We had to get towels to wipe it up. Her husband Bill then went to the basement and proceeded to clean out the grease trap.

I also worked at a Steak 'N Shake restaurant during the Summer of '78, and they had a problem with the grease trap clogging one evening. Water from the dishwasher and sinks came up out of the floor drains, causing the restaurant to close so we could clean up. Luckily, the plumber was able to come early the next day to fix it.

 

[dermacie]

I learned this the hard way ! My mom always said to never pour grease down the drain and I always listen until one year at thanksgiving I poured turkey drippings down the drain in my kitchen sink and it was very cold that night and it drained into my dishwasher hose and got hard and clogged my dishwasher hose and drain. I had to take it all apart and get a new dishwasher hose.

I later admitted to my mom that she was right and had many swear words over it. Ironically last year my brother did the same thing and it traveled all the way under his driveway and a plumber was nice enough to charge 400 dollars to snake it free .

 

[iowabear]

I had never really thought about it.  It was just drilled into me as a kid as "something to never do" - like running with knives, LOL.

 

Had a coffee can under the kitchen sink for grease and I still keep one today, although today's "can" is plastic.  Nevertheless it has never melted on me. 

 

I'm sure one day P&G will reduce the thickness of the plastic another few millimeters...and I will have a mess.

 

 

 

 

 

[wayupnorth]

I keep my grease coffee can in the freezer corner and deposit when full on trash day.

 

[combo52]

Disposing Of Grease & Old Cooking Oil

Yay Ken, Post # 32, you are the first one to get it right, Everyone should save all their old used grease and cooking oil and RECYCLE IT at a local restaurants grease recycling container,

 

I have done this for decades,

 

I just fill old old quart or 1/2 gallon jars and take them and pour it in the grease recycling containers at local restaurants, then take the jars home and once run through the DW they are used again,

 

I can never believe how much stuff people throw away that can be easily recycled.

 

Why waste all this potential energy ?

 

John L.

 

[rapidry1000]

Getting rid of used cooking oil and grease

In San Francisco we have an oil recycling program sponsored by the City. Our local Costco is one of the recycling stations that residents can drop off their used oil and other grease. I accumulate used cooking oil and bacon grease in glass jars and drop off these jars whenever shopping at Costco.

 

[launderess]

NYC has only just recently begun rolling out composting citywide, and not everyone is happy with that idea.

Am not holding used grease/oils/fats at home then driving around to find a place that accepts such donations. If and or when city launches a program where rubbish collection expands to grease; then maybe things can be different.

Yes, there are commercial services that will take used oils/fats/grease from restaurants and such, but don't think they do the one off from households.

 

[ea56]

I’m with you Launderess! I’m not about to begin truck’n all over hither and yon to dispose of old cooking grease. If they want us to dispose of it in a way that it can be recycled, then there need to be provisions made for it to be a no hassle task.

I’m responsible, in that I don’t pour it down the drain and trash the publc sewer system. I really make an effort to be responsible, recycle and not waste resources or pollute the enviornment. Throwing leftover bacon grease in the garbage isn’t such a terrible thing to do.

But John does have a vaild point, in that this waste grease could be a source of energy. Garbage companies could make some money on it if they made it convenient for customers to leave it out for recycling with their trash pickup. Thats up to them to have their bean counters decide whether or not this would be profitable, but I’m not holding my breath. During WWll people saved it and turned it in for war time production of explosives, and other defense needs. I’ll bet that they had a fairly easy way for people to do this. Maybe it would be a good idea of refuse haulers to look into this.

Eddie

 

[launderess]

City stopped collecting certian electronics/appliances

As part of normal sanitation routes. We are now supposed to bring such things to designated recycling centers. Some do, others simply chuck them onto street or on corner near public trash bins. Either way between dumpster divers, trash pickers or whatever the things are gone within several hours.

Maybe instead of a wash in; we all could save up grease and have a soap making event! *LOL*

 

[tolivac]

There is a cooking grease container at the transfer station dump area I go to.Right next to the cooking oil tank is one for used motor oil.Hope these don't get confused!

 

[imperial70]

nothing will happen the first year but...

My sister in law was doing it for 20 years and finally. Major clog.
I've never done it. In a metal can or glass jar and in the trash (after it cools of course). It solidifies so not sure how it ends up in the dumpster. Perhaps at a restaurant where there is a larger quantity tossed at ounce. I'm so anal that I wipe a pan fairly clean of any grease before washing.

Gosh no. Do not throw (down the drain).

 

[tolivac]

Don't throw down the drain-knew of a Rainbow vacuum owner that dumpted its water dirt bin down the toilet-eventually they had such a bad clog the Roto Rooter guy wore out 2 sawtooth rooter blades to clean the pipes!Like grease-DON'T dump vacuum sweepings down the drain-also bad for septic tanks.Throw the rainbow dirt bin remains in the garden or somewhere outside.do as the Rainbow salesman sales-"gets the dirt out of the house!"

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

After putting unwanted meat juice in a coffee can to give my dad to give to his cats, I have actually been making soup (beef with beef or pork juice/fat, chicken with chicken, using bouillon cubes) with all that which I'd always avoided pouring down my drain, even no matter how small the amounts would be...

Unfortunately the most recent "soups" haven't agreed with me--I make the soup with kinchee noodles to add/enhance the flavor, but these soups got a little hard on the tummy, and my wife and kid won't touch any of this, so I don't know if I'm back to making cat food out of what is a little bit collected over time...

-- Dave

 

[potatochips]

I redid my kitchen recently and replaced the sink. I had to replace the sewer lines from underneath the sink to make the new one fit. Long story short, the inner diameter of the sewer pipes were reduced from the previous owners dumping oil and grease down the sink. Hot or not, oils/greases dont mix well with water in to a nice homogeneous solution, and eventually will settle out from the water. Sewer pipe bends and what not aggravate this separation. Not worth it.

 

I will usually tip bacon grease in to a safe dish, refrigerate said dish to solidify the oil, and then wipe the solid oil out and compost it.

 

[combo52]

Kitchen Sink Drain Lines That Close Up Inside

This does not necessarily come from dumping grease down the drain. A drain line often adapts to the flow of water it is asked to carry, this type of build up is very typical from just washing dishes and greasy pots and pans.

 

The best way to keep drains as clean as possible is to not oversize the drain lines in the first place. Also kitchens that have a disposer [ that is actually used a lot ] and a DW usually have much cleaner drains.

 

A disposer puts out lots of particles that actually scour the drain lines and keep them much more open and cleaner, and if greasy pans and dishes are put in a DW WITHOUT rinsing the DW will emulsify any grease and it will flow far down the drain lines and not congeal right back onto the inside of the drain lines.

 

John L.

 

[potatochips]

"This does not necessarily come from dumping grease down the drain." ... " this type of build up is very typical from just washing dishes and greasy pots and pans."

Im more than positive if you dump cups of bacon grease down the drain that overtime it will build up and choke off the pipe. I have a hard time believing that repeated dish washing would end up plugging off ABS or PVC sewer pipes as you suggest, especially since the ratio of grease to water is in the parts per million range when you wash one greasy pot in 20+ litres of water with dish soap. I, in my experience with industrial water treatment, would know that the small amount of grease will be nicely carried away with soapy water without issue. If that was the case then people would be replacing their plumbing a lot.

"A drain line often adapts to the flow of water it is asked to carry,"

At the same time I understand this statement, I dont? If you reduce the ID by half that you will get the same flow rate... My kitchen sink sewer is the same line as the dishwasher sewer, they tie in together and this buildup still happened. 

[this post was last edited: 6/21/2018-16:01]

 

[vacerator]

So true.

Mineral deposits can reduce the inside diameter of drains the same as all else.
When we replaced our tub/shower drain to the main stack with a wider one for a shower only, the old pipe was half the size inside. About 50 years old galvanized drain pipe.

 

[potatochips]

While galvanized piping may pick up sediment and deposits, ABS and PVC is more resistant to this. I 100% agree you can get deposits to stick or what not on that type of piping, and the piping itself can and will start to slough off. I cant stand cast iron, steel, or galvanized piping used for sewers. Theyre garbage. Over time they get brittle or crack, they cannot handle the duty of sewers as well as ABS, PVC, or concrete.

 

My house is all ABS sewer piping.

[this post was last edited: 6/21/2018-16:53]

 

[sudsmaster]

In this town, by law, all drains have to be cast iron. Except of course for the stuff under the sink. And a previous owner used 1.5" copper pipe for the laundry closet drain. Seems to work OK.

As far as soup goes, when I bake a chicken I usually freeze the bones etc as the meat is removed. Then simmer them in salty water, sometimes with a little vinegar, overnight. Makes a stout and tasty broth. I have tried this with beef bones but for some reason the chicken seems to work better. It actually gels in the fridge, probably from the solubilized cartilage, which Is probably good for joint health.

The vinegar can be neutralized at the end with a dash of sodium bicarbonate. Unless you want hot and sour soup.