Picture this — you are in the kitchen and have just finished cooking a delicious meal. You begin cleaning up, and it is time to dispose of the cooking oil. You stand with the frying pan and think, ‘I will just pour the hot oil down the kitchen sink; what harm can it do?’.
Before you pour used cooking oil down your drain, consider its impact on your pipes. Proper disposal is key.
Your drainage plumbing consists of various pipes and channels in and outside your property, leading to your sewer and stormwater drains. This eventually ends up in the treatment plant of your city.
Monitoring what goes down your kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and toilet drain is crucial.
Is It Bad To Throw Cooking Oil Down The Drain?
The only liquids that should be washed down our drains are water, toilet paper, and human waste. Food scraps, disposable or wet wipes, paper towels and other foreign objects can block the pipework, and harsh chemicals can affect the pipes through corrosion or cracks.
Household cooking oil such as vegetable oil, olive oil, corn oil, and other grease and fats will cool as the temperature drops inside the pipework and cooled oil solidifies. This hardened grease or cooled cooking oil will eventually create a barrier inside the pipe wall. Additional materials will then catch onto the used oil. This is not good for the smooth flow of water and can often cause smelly drains and blockages. Don’t pour cooking oil, pan drippings, grease or sauces down the sink.
So, what is the safest disposal method if you shouldn’t dispose of used cooking oil down the drain? Should you recycle cooking oil? Here are some helpful tips and suggestions.
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How Should You Dispose Of Cooking Oil At Home?
There are other alternatives to disposing of household cooking oil down the sink:
- Properly dispose a small amount of grease left over in the pan. Wipe it with an absorbent paper towel and throw it in your garbage bin.
- You can recycle your cooking oil and fats. Once you have finished using it, filter it, place it in a sealable container or jar, and leave it in the fridge for reuse. You may also freeze it to make it last longer.
- Pour more significant amounts of oil into a sealable, non-recyclable container and toss it in the recycling bin.
- If you reuse your cooking oil, make sure that it is filtered. Remember to be mindful of other people’s dietary requirements. If a guest is a vegetarian, avoid using the fat in which you have cooked animal products.
Can You Throw Away Your Cooking Oil In The Garden?
You can recycle cooking grease in your garden. Mix it into your compost system but remember to use small amounts. Using vegetable-based cooking fat, olive oil, or sunflower oil is best.
Reuse cooking oil. Vegetable oils are considered organic and can be mixed with birdseed.
Recycling cooking as a waste management practice can be advantageous not only to every household but also to the environment. You can mix the oil with an absorbent material like cat litter, sand, and sawdust, quickly soaking up the liquid waste.
Taking Care Of Your Drainage System
If you can’t find recycling centres, cooking oil disposal should be a part of our cleaning routine. It may be easier to dump deep frying oil and scraps down the sink but remember, fats and grease that are cooled down will become lodged inside the pipework.
Food and other organic material and waste can create a smelly environment in your kitchen, so remember to place old oil for deep frying into garbage bags and dispose of it in your garbage, or if you would like to reuse your oil, pour it into a sealed container (airtight container) and keep it stored it in the fridge or freezer to use at a later time.
There are many ways you can save your plumbing and ensure your pipework is working at its best through properly used cooking oil disposal. Develop a grease disposal system and correctly dispose of your old cooking oils, not down the pipes.
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