Grease traps are an essential component of every commercial kitchen. They decrease the risk of sewer blockages and separate greases and solids before reaching wastewater systems. However, just because it’s necessary to have a grease trap in your commercial kitchen doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to keep it regularly emptied and maintained. In addition to partnering with an affordable partner like Food Grease Trappers, check out our money-saving cleaning tips for your grease trap to achieve even more savings. [Read more…]
Educating Your Staff to Control Fats, Oils, Grease, and Solids
While the purpose of grease traps is to collect fats, oils, greases, and solids, it’s still important to manage these byproducts to reduce the risks of blockages, backups, and overflows. Fortunately, there are simple management practices you can teach your kitchen staff to avoid a costly error. Despite not being certified grease trap professionals, educating your staff to control fats, oils, greases, and solids will prevent accidents and extend the period grease collection services. [Read more…]
Signs Your Grease Trap Needs Replacing
While we don’t perform installations here at Food Grease Trappers, we’ve inspected our fair share of grease traps that are far beyond recovery. Sometimes cleaning and maintenance isn’t enough to revive a grease trap that has fallen into disrepair. Fortunately, there are signs you can watch out for to prevent catastrophe – signs we here at Food Grease Trapper are well aware of. However, to protect your business, it’s best that you’re also aware of the signs your grease trap needs replacing. [Read more…]
The Negative Environmental Impact of FOGS
As a company offering grease trap services, it’s our responsibility not only to pump and clean traps according to local and federal ordinances, but also to ensure the oil is correctly disposed of. The buildup of fats, oils, grease, and solids (FOGS) can cause severe ecological harm if not appropriately handled by professionals. In this blog, we’ll discuss the negative environmental impact of FOGS if a grease trap is not properly emptied and maintained and the steps to preserving nature. [Read more…]
Matching Grease Trap Maintenance to Your Restaurant’s Busy Season
You’ve got full lines, you’ve got full tables, you’ve got full waitlists and full kitchen orders: the last thing you want is a full grease trap. Between the risks of wastewater backing up (a combined sewer overflow ends your business fast) and the fines that can be leveled at you for having a non-functional grease trap, it’s important to have a plan. In this blog, we’re going to look at how to better track the risky seasons for your business, know what to look for, and how to schedule out grease trap maintenance to avoid any issues.
[Read more…]Dealing with Grease Sources Before They Hit Your Grease Trap
For our clients who are looking to reduce the number of grease trap problems, the risks of sewer overflows, and increased grease trap maintenance, we tell them to go after the source. For most clients – which are usually restaurants – they have multiple sources of wastewater that combine to feed into and through the grease trap. By changing what and how waste enters those sinks and drains, they can have better functioning grease traps that require less maintenance.
[Read more…]What is FOGS? Revisiting Fats, Oils, Grease, and Solids
With every business, there are byproducts, some of which are hazardous to both the business itself and the environment. For restaurants and other food-based industries, these byproducts aren’t toxic or even dangerous to handle, but their impact to the environment – and even more pressing, the day-to-day running of the business – are still very real. Through cooking, cleaning, and excess food disposal, FOGS (Fats, Oils, Grease, and Solids) is introduced into the wastewater. Clogging pipes, sewer overflows, damaged treatment stations, odor complaints, and environmental and ordinance fines are just the tip of the fatberg when it comes to not containing and treating FOGS at your restaurant.
[Read more…]Is Your Grease Trap Ready for Your Restaurant’s Peak Season?
When your restaurant is busy, it’s easy to forget details like maintenance, especially something as out-of-sight, out-of-mind as a grease trap hidden in a backroom or a grease interceptor beneath the pavement out back. However, it’s at these peak seasons for your restaurant that your grease trap is at most risk – when it’s filling faster and not being monitored. Failure to keep this equipment ready for your busiest time can cause serious business-stopping issues from sewer overflow to health and safety violations. Time to get ready. [Read more…]
What Happens If Your Restaurant Causes a Sewer Overflow?
There’s a reason the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that all municipalities in the US have policies to control the Fats, Oils, Grease, and food Solids (FOGS) that enter the waste systems. FOGS is estimated to cause over 50% of all sewer overflows, creating restrictions and blockages in sewer pipes by slowly attaching and accumulating to the walls of the pipes and drawing more solids and other FOGS particles into its sticky mass. The resulting constricted water flow leads to sewer overflows in the streets or even into the floors and basements of homes and businesses. Learn about what it can cost you if your restaurant causes a combined sewer overflow. [Read more…]
Do I Need a Grease Trap If My Restaurant Doesn’t Use Oil?
We service thousands of grease traps, and many of our first conversations with clients when they call about their grease trap is “I don’t get it, we have no grease. What could possibly be in there?” While they are called grease traps and grease interceptors, there’s more than just grease that gets pulled into a trap. And yes, this is how the grease trap is meant to function: taking water from your sinks and drains and treating it before the wastewater hits the sewers. If you think you don’t need a grease trap or don’t need your trap serviced, you may reconsider after reading this blog.
