Olive Oil Damages Popeye’s Neighbors

Can you pour grease down the drain?

Pouring kitchen grease down the drain is one of the most damaging environmental acts one can commit in a city environment. Kitchen grease, while hot, is a liquid, but as it cools, it solidifies, which means pipes get clogged, causing backups and an ugly costly mess.

Backups happen to neighbors, businesses and sewer lines, not just the business where the grease was produced.

The result is usually fines, lost licenses, closed restaurants and very expensive cleanups.

This Popeyes restaurant in Detroit flooded neighbors basements by pouring hot kitchen grease into a wastewater drain on the street causing backups and flooding and untold damages to basements and plumbing.

Never pour kitchen grease down the drain. 

Across the globe, fatbergs, massive solidified waste material clogs have been created by  pouring kitchen grease into drains causing millions in damages. Grease can damage garbage systems, sewer systems and wastewater systems. Ancillary damages caused by backups can run into the millions of dollars.

What is the best way to dispose of kitchen grease?

Kitchen grease from fryers, along with animal fats, must be handled properly to avoid the fate of damages experienced by the Detroit Popeye’s. The very best way for a restaurant to handle used cooking grease is to have an indoor system which pipes the oil from the fryers into a storage tank. Then a licensed used cooking oil collector such as  D&W Alternative Energy will pump the grease from the tank into their truck via a hose and haul it away to be reprocessed into biodiesel or renewable diesel fuel.

Having an indoor system prevents theft and avoids employees having to move the oil to an outdoor bin. D&W Alternative Energy provides such  closed automated systems to clients with sufficient volume to make it worthwhile.And here are three ways to move the oil from the fryer  to the indoor tank.

The second best way to dispose of restaurant oil is to have your licensed used cooking oil company place a large locked waste oil bin in a secure outdoor location where staff can dump and store used cooking oil for pickup by your used cooking oil collector. If your kitchen has limited space you might consider using an Ecotub in the kitchen. D&W Alternative Energy provides all of these solutions and more.

The benefits of recycling kitchen grease

Proper recycling of cooking oil prevents environmental damage from backups, clogs and floods. But recycling cooking oil into biodiesel fuel also helps the environment because biodiesel emits 74% fewer emissions than traditional diesel. 

And  isn’t that a good thing for a rapidly warming planet?

Tags: dispose of kitchen grease, pour grease down the drain