You may have been warned not to pour grease down your drains at some point in your life. You may have also been told that running hot water while pouring the grease down the rain is okay. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true. Grease, along with liquid cooking oils, should never be poured down the drain. Read on to see the reasons why and alternative methods you should use to get rid of grease and hot cooking oils.
Why You Should Never Pour Grease Down The Drain
If you’ve ever left the bacon grease in the pan for a long time, you’ll notice that it completely solidifies as it cools. That is exactly what happens when you pour the grease down your drains. As the grease makes its way down your drain, it will accumulate in your pipes over time and cause a blockage down the road.
If it makes it to your sewer system, it’s even worse. As the grease joins up with the area’s wastewater, it bonds with calcium (a common chemical in sewer water), the two bond into a soapy, waxy compound. This new compound sticks to the walls of the sewer to form so-called fatbergs. The fatbergs are soap-like compounds that will eventually cause water from the sewer to flow back up into your drains.
How to Correctly Dispose of Grease
As we mentioned earlier, if you leave bacon or hamburger grease in a pan and let it sit for a while, it solidifies and is very easy to wipe from the pan and throw in the trash.
If you’re using cooking oils, allow the pan to cool down and use paper towels to soak up the oils, and throw them in the trashcan. You can also pour the oil into a glass container every time you cook and reuse it.
If you’ve already poured grease down the drain, pour boiling water and liquid soap down your drain to liquefy the grease and allow for emulsification in your pipes.
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