Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG) Education

How to Prevent FOG from Damaging Your Home and the Environment:

Fats, oils, and grease aren't just bad for your arteries and your waistline; they're bad for sewers too.

Municipal Sanitary Sewer overflows and backups can cause health hazards, damage home interiors, and threaten our environment. The second leading cause of sewer overflows is grease blockages. Grease can get into sewers from household drains and poorly maintained grease traps in restaurants and other businesses.  How can this affect you?  Think about it…almost all homes in municipalities are connected to the sanitary sewers.  If this system backs up from a blockage of fats and grease it can get inside your home, into your basement or onto your streets, lawns, and from there it can get into the storm sewer system and then directly to our rivers and lakes.  We don’t want the sewage in our homes on our streets or in our rivers and lakes.

Where Does Grease Come From?

·   Meat Fats (such as lard) - Cooking Oils - Dairy Products - Baked Goods

·   Shortening - Butter & Margarine - Food Scraps - Sauces & Soups

Too often, grease is washed into the plumbing system through kitchen sinks. Grease should never be poured down the drain or sink in your home. Many people are unaware that pouring hot water and detergent down the drain only breaks up grease temporarily, it then moves further down the sewer line and can cause problems in other areas. When grease gets into a sewer line, it sticks to the insides of the pipes (both on your property and in the streets). Over time, the grease will build up and eventually block the entire pipe. 

The results can be:

·    Raw sewage overflowing into homes, yards or/and streets.

·    An expensive and unpleasant cleanup that often must be paid for by the homeowner.

·    Possible contact with disease-causing organisms.

·    Increase in operation & maintenance costs by the Town, which causes higher sewer bills for residents.

What you can do to help:

·    Never pour grease down the sink drains and toilets.

·    Pour small amounts of grease into a non-recyclable container (i.e., juice can, empty milk carton). Place container in the refrigerator to harden grease before disposal in the trash.

·    Before washing, scrape grease and food scraps from plates, pots, utensils, and cooking surfaces into the trash.

·    Home garbage disposals do not keep grease out of the plumbing system. Never put grease down

garbage disposals.

·    Be cautious of chemicals and additives (including soaps and detergents) that claim

to dissolve grease. Some of these additives simply pass grease down pipes where it can clog the sewer lines.