Some families roast their holiday meals, others may fry them, but cooking can produce a lot of grease. Instead of pouring it down the sink, some Valley cities are hoping residents will bring in their waste cooking oil for recycling.
Cooking oil, fats and grease, when poured down the drain, can clog and damage both residential plumbing and municipal sewer systems by solidifying in pipes. To avoid this, several Valley cities including Tempe, Mesa, and Gilbert, are encouraging residents to bring in waste cooking grease for recycling.
Some cities want residents to pour oil into a can and throw it into the garbage, but recycling cities can turn the waste oil into biodiesel, a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. Residents can call their city’s public works offices for more information.
If you do inadvertently pour waste grease into the sink, occasionally pouring boiling water down the drain will help re-liquefy and send the grease further along.
