Last week, we put up a notice on our website after inquiries assuring customers that they could postpone their next scheduled grease trap service with a call. Due to additional questions and all the uncertainty floating around, we thought we’d go into more detail about what to do about your grease traps while mandatory closures and restrictions limit or shut down your kitchen. Whether you’re looking to get some work done while you wait or want to make sure you close things down properly, here are some tips to help with your restaurant’s grease traps during the coronavirus crisis. [Read more…]
What Kind of Restaurants Produce Too Much Grease?
All restaurants produce grease. It’s why most municipalities have rules making grease traps mandatory for any business that prepares food – and why more are passing these kinds of laws every year. And it’s why you’ve got a grease trap. However, you might find out your current grease trap isn’t meeting your demands, or maybe you’re trying to figure out what size grease trap you’ll need for a new location. Here are three factors that can impact your grease traps and might be why you produce too much grease in your kitchens.
[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…]Does My Business Need a Grease Trap?
Grease traps serve a critical role in your county’s infrastructure, by removing grease and other oils from your sinks and drains before it hits the public sewer systems and ultimately the wastewater treatment plants. Because of this, businesses and facilities that produce this kind of grease waste need to be regulated, and part of that is mandated grease traps. If you’re not sure if your business meets these requirements, review the blog below as the first step to getting some answers. [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…]
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.
5 Grease Trap Best Practices for a Commercial Kitchen
Around the world in restaurants, cafes, and other commercial kitchens, there are the cries of managers dealing with sluggish pipes, overflowing grease traps, and drains clogged with FOG. We encounter these problems every day from clients whose grease traps have caused an emergency in the kitchen. Often, these things can be avoided by making sure you and your staff are following grease trap best practices in the kitchen, providing longer times between services and fewer grease-related emergencies. [Read more…]
What Sinks and Systems Should Connect to a Grease Trap?
The short answer is all of them. When a restaurant produces waste water, it’s responsible for it. If there is water draining from your kitchen into your wastewater pipe, that’s your responsibility. Grease traps and grease interceptors should be used to collect all the FOG (Fats, oils, and grease) coming out of your kitchen, so you can stay up to code on your local ordinances. Wondering why to connect all of them? See it broken down below. [Read more…]
Grease Traps in the News: Summer Edition
Summer isn’t even half way over, and already businesses around the US are finding grease traps in sticky situations when it comes to them, grease traps, and the necessary maintenance for them. These following stories from June and July show exactly why it’s so important to keep your grease traps clean. And if you’re a restaurant that currently doesn’t have one? You’ll see some stories about why it’s so important to plan and budget for one, because eventually you will need to get one. [Read more…]
Selling Your Waste Vegetable Oil
In the last ten years, driven by increased fuel costs and environmentally-based green initiatives, the United States has increased the production of vegetable oil as part of biodiesel and other green recycling programs. One source of this vegetable oil is “waste vegetable oil” which is reclaimed from the food production and food service industries. There is a lot of support of this WVO recycling program on both a state and federal level, and as such it’s become profitable for restaurants to store and sell their used oil instead of simply throwing it away. [Read more…]
