How to properly dispose of cooking grease, fats and oils

There is so much choice in choosing which fat to use on your food sometimes – butter? Olive oil? Coconut oil? Which will be the best for this recipe?

Once the food has been consumed, we are often left with a pan full of grease, fat or oil. It is often tempting, after spending a lot of time and energy on making the meal, serving it, and cleaning up, to just rinse it down the drain. Here’s why you shouldn’t do that, and what you should do instead.

If you continually pour grease and oils down your drain, it will clog around the edges and then other items could stick to it. It’ll be typical that when a holiday such as Christmas comes around, this giant clog will cause you some very expensive issues due to surcharges. The other thing that can happen is that you can clog up your road, town’s drain or sewage system. That may not seem like a big deal, but it costs thousands of pounds for the council and local water companies to sort and could impact you in more ways than one: Sewage build-up, flooding, even traffic! This also means that possible tax money that will be in need to be spent on it.

Bates Environmental explains what to do instead of pouring oil, fats and grease down the sink, in order to prevent slow drainage and blocked drains.

What to do instead

Recycling:

You can recycle your oil! Here is what you do:

  1. Let it cool.
  2. Filter the oil by pouring it through something like a coffee filter, paper towel, or very recyclable cheesecloth into the container you are going to store it in.
  3. Immediately store it in the fridge or freezer.
  4. You can continually reuse your oil as long as it stays fresh.

Disposing of:

If you don’t have enough oil or fat to recycle, then you need to dispose of it with the rubbish. Here are four simple steps.

  1. Let it cool.
  2. Pour it into a disposable container. You could use an old jar, or something with a lid if you want to continue to use it until it is full. Or you can use a small container if you want to throw it out right away.
  3. Place the item in a plastic bag or ziplock bag. Just ensure the bag has no holes so your oil, grease or fat will not leak.
  4. Then simply throw it in with the rubbish.

To summarise:

You can save yourself and your neighbours a lot of money and yourself a big headache by properly taking care of your oil, butter or grease and enjoy using these cooking staples for a long time to come.

Book blocked drains clearance online

Bates Environmental Ltd is the leading independent sewage treatment specialist in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and parts of Northamptonshire. We aim to deliver the highest professional service using our expertise in the design, supply, installation, servicing and repair of all makes of sewage treatment plants, drainage and septic tank systems. If you require any drain unblocking service, then please get in touch with us here at Bates Environmental.