We don’t want to spoil your holiday dinner, but do you know what happens when you put leftover cooking oil and greasy food scraps down the kitchen drain or disposal?
It isn’t pretty, according to Mike Martin, chief of pretreatment and pollution prevention with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.
“When grease goes down the drain in a liquid form, it will cool and adhere to the sides of the pipes. This reduces the pipe’s diameter and restricts the flow of water,” said Martin. “This can prevent other household waste from moving through the pipe, causing sewage backups in your home or a sanitary sewer overflow in the street.”
No one wants to deal with that situation on a family holiday, not even plumbers. Martin said the local plumbing community refers to the day after Thanksgiving as Brown Friday—one of the busiest times for sewage backups.
So what do you do? Martin recommends taking a few minutes to dispose of fats, oils and grease (FOG) properly:
—For standing grease, pour it while i...