Tagged with 'fog'

Among the many pandemic-driven culinary trends over the past two years is a reminder that rotisserie chicken remains a popular comfort food. Many grocery store chains enjoyed strong and steady rotisserie chicken sales amid the ups and downs of the past 24 months, as have a number of restaurants that serve it. Investing in a rotisserie oven can be good for business, but beware. They dump a lot of grease into your plumbing system. Here’s how to prepare for it. 

Shopping for a new grease trap? Prices aren't what they seem. Over the life of a grease trap, what you paid upfront will become a small percentage of the total cost of ownership. To get the best value for your business over the long term, think holistically. The true lifetime cost includes three categories. We outline them here to help you make the best buying decision. 

Commercial kitchen operators already know the benefits of using grease interceptors to capture used oil and grease -- cleaner sewage systems, reduced costs for wastewater treatment plants and fewer fines from municipalities.

Plus, you can protect your facility's interior plumbing and make a little extra money selling used cooking oil to recyclers.

But did you know that by capturing all that grease you're also helping cut greenhouse gas emissions?

Fats, oils and grease (FOG) in wastewater are one of the biggest challenges facing wastewater systems around the world. Grease, sometimes along with solids, can build up into a solid mass that can narrow or even block wastewater pipes. When that happens, sewers overflow, pipes break, and local authorities are forced to clean up the mess and make repairs.

In the United States alone, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as many as 47 percent of all wastewater system blockages are caused by the buildup of grease. In New York City alone, those annual repairs cost nearly $5 million. Other large cities also rack up multi-million dollar bills for repairs and emergency service.

Cities are adopting a number of tactics to keep grease out of their wastewater systems.

Though having a grease interceptor is required in virtually all commercial kitchens, there’s much more to controlling fats, oils and grease (FOG).

Why should you care? It’s not just about staying in compliance with government regulations and avoiding fines or even potential shutdowns. Best management practices to control FOGs in your kitchen will also save you money on maintenance and reduce the risk of costly, emergency plumbing repairs inside your building.

Here are eleven best management practices to control grease, save money and protect your business’ reputation.

Noncompliance with pretreatment regulations creates serious problems, both for the violator and for the wastewater system operator.

While ordinances, fines and consistent enforcement are essential, they are not sufficient for effective pretreatment. After all, the goal of a pretreatment program is to maintain water quality, reduce the load on water treatment plants and minimize sewer system maintenance costs.

The best way to achieve those goals is to prevent pretreatment ordinance violations in the first place.

Here are five key tools that every effective pretreatment program should have. Combined, these elements can reduce the enforcement burden while also maintaining a cleaner, more efficient wastewater treatment system.

It’s not very often that wastewater system workers are hailed as heroes in the headlines around the world. But in August 2013, that’s what happened.

News media around the world picked up the story of London’s ‘fatberg,’ a bus-sized, 33,000-pound mass of fats, oils and grease that had clogged an 8-foot diameter sewer line.

The English newspaper The Guardian reported:

“A sewage worker has become an unlikely hero after taking three weeks to defeat a toxic 15-tonne ball of congealed fat the size of a bus that came close to turning parts of the London borough of Kingston upon Thames into a cesspit.”

Better Practices in the Modern Era

We are thankful to live in the 21^st century and to not worry about dying from a restaurant dining experience.  I once worked with a man whose 20 year-old brother died in 1940 of food poisoning from a restaurant with poor sanitation.  As recently as the late 1940s, hot water heaters were not reliable and ware-washing detergents were caustic based.  If the water was not hot, the detergent was not effective.  Today’s modern restaurant has plenty of hot water, highly efficient detergents and those detergents also contain sanitizers and water softening agents to ensure complete sanitation and cleaning takes place. 

Today we have better sanitation practices and the plates are always clean, but how about what is being sent down the drain?  Does it pose a problem for the community’s sewer collection system?  Can the constituents be treated at the community’s wastewater treatment plant?