Grease is produced by cooking, coming from different sources such as the cooking medium and the meat itself.
Items like cheese also release fats and oils when heated, as do soups and other foods commonly prepared in
restaurants.
Restaurants produce an average of 150 to 250 pounds of grease per week,
up to 1,000 pounds per month, or 13,000 pounds per year.
That's a LOT of grease! Grease that can build up in the pipes beneath your restaurant, reducing the capacity of your sewer line.
This grease must be properly disposed of, and needs to be captured and recycled as much as possible, to avoid having
to deal with clogged pipes and plumbing problems, and to help reduce your waste. Used cooking oil is actually a valuable resource, and you may be able to get credit for reducing your waste and for
recycling it to be made into biodiesel, a cleaner-burning fuel, or it could be used by your local wastewater treatment plant to reduce energy costs. It can also be used in producing pipeline quality biomethane, an alternative renewable source of natural gas.
Grease in your sewer line poses problems.
As the fats, oils, and grease, commonly referred to as "FOG", cool, it congeals in your sewer lateral pipe, or in
the pipes on the property you're located on, or "downstream" in the street reducing the available space for the wastewater to pass through. Because it reduces the capacity of the pipe to function normally, your restaurant may have the
wastewater back up into it, via the kitchen sinks and floor drains, in your restrooms, and even outdoors in the
environment from the nearby sewer manhole or cleanout.
This won't be an appetizing sight.
Not only will your restaurant experience flooding, but the health department codes to protect health and safety
will require your restaurant to be closed for the duration of the cleanup, which could take hours. With closure,
you reduce your income for that period of time tremendously, and will also pay for any expenses to mitigate the
backup.
If the overflow occurs outdoors, you must capture all of the water and contain it before it leaves your property.
If it leaves your property and reaches any surface waters, you may be fined by local, state and federal
enforcement agencies for water quality impairment. Your restaurant can be held liable for the cleanup, which
could cost you thousands of dollars before the damage has been mitigated.
We help control your expenses, and can even save you money!
We can assess where changes need to be made within your existing compliance program, and help you save
money in preventive maintenance on your sewer lateral, on your grease trap cleaning, and help you reduce or
even avoid the bigger costs associated with mitigating an overflow.
We help protect your brand from the "ewww" factor of having sewage back
up into your restaurant, or worse, out in the environment.
