Photo via needpix.Imagine you’ve cooked the perfect holiday meal and are about to sit down and enjoy it with family. Suddenly, the drains clog and your guests are left to eat without their host – who is frantically trying to solve a plumbing backup.
It happens more often than you’d think, and Pinellas County has some answers.
“Fats, oils and grease from holiday cooking can cause clogs in household plumbing and public wastewater systems,” the county warned in a recent press release. “Dispose of fats, oils and grease the proper way: in the trash.”
When fats, oils and grease – which the county calls FOG – go down your drains, they can cause clogs in household plumbing and public wastewater systems, “resulting in expensive holiday call outs of plumbers for homeowners and expensive holiday call outs of utility crews for customers,” the county says.
No one wants to be dealing with a plumber – or paying for one – during the holiday.
The county offers an alternative: “The best way to prevent these headaches year-round is to properly dispose of cooled fats, oils and grease by placing them in disposable containers and putting the containers in the trash.”
They also recommend scraping solid food left behind from cooking with fats, oils and grease into the trash.
“Even the smallest amount of FOG builds up over time into a big problem,” the county says, “and can create wastewater back-ups into homes and cause sani-tary sewer overflows in the community.”
Instead of trashing grease and oil, residents can also recycle it. Visit Solid Waste’s A to Z Recycling & Disposal website for more information about disposal sites and options.
More resources here and here.
