TAMPA – If you’re going to be cooking in the kitchen during Thanksgiving week, Hillsborough County has a warning for disposing of cooking oils, fats and grease.
The county says these oils, fats and grease can cause blockages in pipes and major damage to its wastewater infrastructure.
Hillsborough County started the CORE program, Cooking Oil Recycling Effort, to help prevent this damage.
What To Know:
“If people don’t know how to properly dispose of their used cooking oil or their grease, they would typically pour it down the drain, which would be a big mistake,” Melvin Watson, with the Hillsborough County’s Public Utilities division, said.
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Watson says these oils can come from things like frying french fries, chicken, bacon and cooking turkey on Thanksgiving.
County officials say dumping cooking oils, fats and grease down the drain can lead to costly repairs for homeowners, sewer overflows and damage to pumps at lift stations.
Courtesy: Hillsborough County
“They form what we call a ‘fatburg’, which is a combination of fats, oils and grease, mixed with other debris,” Watson said. “But also, it’ll damage pipes, which is very expensive for homeowners to repair. But it would cause sewage to overflow either in the neighborhood or in the home itself. As far as the pump stations, it’ll burn out a pump, which will prevent the wastewater from getting from one point to another, which would also cause overflows eventually.”
What they’re saying:
Watson says this long-term damage to the county’s wastewater infrastructure from a build-up of cooking oils and grease can cause even more issues if there’s a major weather event.
“As far as the pump stations, it’ll burn out a pump, which will prevent the wastewater from getting from one point to another, which would also cause overflows eventually,” he said.
Watson says it can also be hazardous to the environment to throw used cooking oils and grease into the trash or into the yard.
“If you pour your used cooking oils in the backyard, it will contaminate the soil, and it also will attract pests like ants, roaches or rodents,” Watson said.
The county encourages people to allow cooking oils and grease to cool, before pouring it into a container. The county has 29 drop-off sites, where people can bring these containers to be safely recycled.
“That used cooking oil is then taken to be recycled into biodiesel, animal feed and also cosmetics,” Watson said.
Watson said they collected almost 15,000 gallons of cooking oils, fat and grease last year.
You can find more information about the CORE drop-off sites in Hillsborough County here.
The Source: Information for this story was gathered from Hillsborough County’s Public Utilities division.
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